Watch your Neck
by QueenofQuill
Summary: Cal's mind is whirling with confusion so he sneaks away from Niko. Cal always doubted he would ever find true happiness or love. Both these things come in the form of a vampire, a different much more powerful specise than Promise. This can only get messy.
1. Chapter 1

Time was never Cal's friend ... well Cal had very few friends but that was beside the point. Time never seemed to go at a designated pace, sometimes it flew and sometimes it dragged. Cal was quite often in life or death situations and it's not like they dragged out but the time in between them did. Most of the more severe life or death situations he found himself in involved his relatives. In that case many people would think his father belonged to a crime gang or some crap like that but they couldn't be more wrong. No Cal's daddy wasn't a criminal, he was much worse. He was a monster. That is not an insult to his father it is the plain, literal truth. Cal Leandros' father was a walking, snarling, maniacle, psychotic nightmare. This nightmare had a name, he was known as an auphe. The nightmare of the supernatural comunity. While human mothers told their kids not to be afraid of the monsters under their bed, supernatural mothers told their rugrats to be afraid, be very afraid of the auphe.

'What's the time?' Cal thought. 8:38pm. About six minutes since the last time he asked himself. 'Suck it father time. You're seriously pissing me off.'

The twenty-three year old half human, half auphe was lounging on his living-room couch having pleasant thoughts about how he would kill time ... although plotting how to kill an inanimate concept wasn't nearly as satisfying as plotting to kill something living with a beating heart. Something that would wriggle in your grasp and fight for it's life. The sound of the apartment door opening interupted Cal's disturbing musings and the young being reached his hand under one of the sofa cushions where he kept a desert eagle. It was his favourite gun, light, neatly shaped and easy to load. This particular one was a small six inches which Cal kept around the house just incase. Just in case what? Some might ask. Well, you never know. The twenty-three year old had a firm grip on the aforementioned 'Just-in-case-gun', as he dubbed it. This grip loosened immeidiately when he saw his older brother come through the door.

Niko might have thought his little brother was being paranoid. Of course it was him. Who else had a key to their apartment? However no-one who knew Cal could really blame him for acting like that. You could even argue that it was paranoia that kept them alive. Niko had spent his fair share of time in that mental state himself. Niko took off his coat and sat himself down beside his brother, "What's wrong?" he demanded.

"What makes you think something is wrong?" asked Cal not looking at his brother.

"You have that tense, irritated look on your face. I haven't seen that look on your face since the first time we met Goodfellow."

Robin Goodfellow was a puck. A centuries-old creature who was as old as humanity perhaps even older. The two of the brothers had made friends with him a couple of years ago. Cal cared for the annoying, sexually charged immortal but he would never tell him that. Right now Cal didn't want to think about Goodfellow he just wanted to lie down and go to sleep, forget ... everything but at this rate Niko wasn't going to let him go to bed any time soon. "We can stay here all night if you want little brother but like it or not you're going to tell me what's bothering you."

Cal gave a long-suffering sigh and decided that, as usual against Niko obedience was a less troublesome path than defiance. Cal took another moment to curse time and turned to face his brother. Just as he was about to open his mouth the phone rang. Both brothers looked at the phone Niko with an expression of annoyance and Cal with one of gratitude. Niko turned to face his brother. "Don't think this is over," he warned, "we're still going to talk." He then walked over to the phone and picking it up and putting it to his ear he said rather irritably, "What?" Cal could hear mumbling on the other end of the phone but he couldn't make out the words or the voice. It was male but that's all he could tell. He felt he owed this guy thanks for diverting his brother's attention.

"What do you want Goodfellow?" Ok forget thanks, Cal decided. He'd just be less sarcastic the next time he saw him. "I'm in the middle of something," said Niko sounding annoyed. No-one who didn't know Niko would have been able to tell he was annoyed as not much about his expression or his tone changed but Cal could tell. He had spent his entire life looking at Niko's face and he could tell when the slightest thing changed like how dark his eyes got when he was angry or how the muscles in his face softened when he was happy. How his voice seemed to get harder when his mood got darker. Cal looked at his brother dreading the conversation that was to come the minute Niko hung up the phone. It wasn't so much that he didn't want to rely on his brother although he did feel guilty that he had spent his entire life doing that but the main problem was that he didn't really know what was going on inside his head himself so discussing it was going to be a difficulty. The younger Leandros frantically tried to think of the way out of this. By the impatient look on Niko's face Cal deduced that he probably had less than two minutes to come up with a plan and get out of the apartment or face a dreadful conversation. He knew even if he did manage to get past Niko which was a great difficulty in itself, he would have to face him later and also face heavy consequences for his great escape but he decided it was worth it. He needed time to get his head together before he talked to his brother.

'What can I do?' thought Cal as calmly as he could. Niko's back was to him but even so he knew couldn't sneak out the front door. Even with his attention diverted Niko's senses were extremely honed especially when it came to watching his brother. 'Could I use _that_?' Cal thought, considering using the thing Niko expressly forbade him to use. No he couldn't? Could he? No, he wouldn't. Cal quickly thought about the layout of their apartment. The kitchen had a window that lead onto a fire escape. 'Yes,' Cal thought triumphantly, 'I can use that.'

Cal picked up his glass and wandered into the kitchen making it look like he was just going to get a drink. He closed the door as casually as he could making it look like habit hoping Niko was too deep in his conversation with Goodfellow to notice. He stood in the kitchen and counted to ten and when Niko didn't follow him he decided he was safe. He did actually run the tap into his glass and take a large gulp of water before climbing over the kitchen counter and out the window. He winced as the fire escape made a clanging noise when his heavy boots hit it. He glanced back into the kitchen half afraid that Niko would come charging through the door and drag him back inside ... but he didn't. The noise must not have been as loud as he imagined it. It was probably just anxiety playing with Cal's mind.

As quietly and as quickly as he could Cal shut the window and made his way down the fire escape, the cold air easily stinging his skin through his thin T-shirt which made him seriously regret the lack of jacket.

When Cal reached the bottom of the fire escape he took a quick look up at his apartment window pushing his body against the cold, stone wall in case Niko's face suddenly appeared at the window. Cal was positive that if Niko caught him sneaking out then he would bolt down the fire escape and kick Cal's ass. Probebly three times over. The young being thought about running for a second but then disregarded the idea as he needed to clear his head and running would only remind him of the many times he had been forced to run for his life. That was not the images Cal wanted in his head right now. Sure Niko was dangerous and sure there would be hell to pay when his brother caught him but Cal couldn't bring himself to care at the moment. As long as he wasn't running for his life he would walk slowly and expend as little energy as possible thank-you very much.

Cal's laid back attitude of 'live now and worry about the consequences when they come', wasn't ideal when it came to his life style. A life style which involved running and fighting for his life against creatures that any sane human would deny even exist but this attitude is probebly what kept him sane. Well, as sane as a half human half flesh eating monster could get.

The young man looked at the sky and prayed that it wouldn't rain despite the fact that he seriously doubted God existed and even if he did exist he wasn't too fond of Cal. "I bet it rains," said Cal to the sky with a scowl on his face. Cal looked at his wrist to check the time again but found his watch wasn't there. Another annoyance, but one that was easily solved by the fact that he had his phone in his jeans pocket. 'Almost 9 o'clock,' thought Cal. How could such little time have passed and so much have gone through Cal's head. He needed to meet this Father Time and when he did, he'd make sure he had a gun with him.

"Oh shit," cursed Cal, slapping his forehead with his palm. "I don't have a gun."

When running away from the nightmares of the night the Leandros' had learnt very quickly that it was a good idea to be heavily armed. Now Cal was out in the bowels of the city where God knows what were lurking in the shadows. He really wished God would get off his ass and tell him already but the young man knew fine well that, that was never going to happen.

'Not in a million years Almighty thanks for nothing!'

Cal looked down at his left hand and realised that he was still clutching his phone. He quickly switched it off not wanting to hear it ring and see Niko's name appear on the screen. He was half afraid that he would actually pick it up.

Now that he was completely alone he dropped to one knee and patted his right boot making sure the nifty little knife Niko gave him for his birthday five years ago was safely tucked there in case he needed it. When he was satisfied that he had at least one instrument of defence on his person he stood up and continued on his way to ... he didn't know where. All he knew was he had to clear his head. So he pushed out thoughts of Goodfellow, Niko, the auphe and everything else that happened to be playing on his mind tonight. He kept his guard up though, he wasn't stupid. New York was a dangerous place at the best of times. Even Niko, his kick ass big brother who was as smart as hell and knew more martial arts that Cal cared to remember the names of, wasn't safe on these streets.

Cal sighed wrapping his arms around his body in a feeble attempt to keep warm. When this attempt failed he let his arms drop to his side and placed his hands in his pockets. With his shoulders slumped and his head downcast Cal walked leisurely on the poorly constructed pavement. He let his long, midnight black hair fall over his pale face allowing him to blend in with the night. That was what Cal thought of himself, a creature of the night and he would be doing the whole world a favour if he just faded into the background. The only thing that stopped him from doing that was his brother Niko. He had to stay in the foreground for Niko's sake. His brother had already lost him twice and Cal wasn't prepared to let him go through that again. Just then the young being felt guilty for sneaking out and leaving his brother in the apartment to worry about him. Cal switched his phone on and texted Goodfellow, 'Tel Nik not 2 wury bout me. Jus need time 2 think.'

That absolved Cal's guilt a little bit. Even though worry for Niko still lingered in his mind that wasn't what Cal had to focus on right now. His head was spinning with confusion and worry, he had been feeling very different lately. He tried to think were it started. It couldn't have started that long ago because Niko was only noticing it recently and if there was anyone in the one in the world who was a master at picking up the slightest change in Cal's demeanour it was Niko.

Now that Cal's phone was switched off he had no way of knowing what time it was and strangely enough it was better that way. Having no concept of time except for the fact that it was very late that easily recognised by the blackness of the sky, was very calming and made it easier to clear his head. Having no thoughts about his brother or his friends or his daemonic family made him feel more at peace than he had in a very long time. In fact his mind hadn't been this clear since he had been a child eating fish fingers and yoghurt with Niko sitting watching over him.

Cal took some time to think about his childhood. Now that he was a mature adult ... well mature in some senses, he knew that it had been a less than ideal one. He had known that for years. His innocence was taken away from him at a very young age not so much by his situation but by his mother. Sophia was what you would expect an evil fairy tale stepmother to be like. She was beautiful and mystifying not to mention manipulative and clever but she was also a rotten to the core and as cruel as mothers come. She may have never physically laid a finger on Cal but she had left her mark like an iron brand. His earliest memory of this was when he was about three or four years old. He was sitting at the tiny table in the old trailer eating a bowl of oatmeal Niko had made for his breakfast when Sophia walked in and leaned her elbows on the table to look Cal directly in the eye with a wicked grin and cold stone grey eyes that portrayed disgust and say, "Well daddy came to visit his special boy last night didn't he?"

Cal was too young to know what she meant back then but the hate and repulsion in her eyes and the sourness of her words made the young child all too aware that she thought he was a monster and if you tell a child often enough that he is a monster it won't be long before he starts to believe it. No matter how many kind words his brother drilled into his brain they didn't erase the brand Sophia had stamped on him. No matter how many times Niko tried to tell him he was human the memory of his mother's words destroyed any comprehension of the reassurance coming from his brother's mouth. Sophia was the reason Cal thought the word monster was stamped on his forehead for all to see. And everybody did see it. Humans had senses and instincts that they didn't give themselves credit for, when Cal met a human they usually knew instinctively that there was something wrong with him. Of course they could never tell what it was but their brains told them, 'This person is dangerous. This person is wrong. Stay away from him,' and they did. Cal never blamed them for their prejudice but he couldn't help resenting them for it slightly. It was even worse when he was a child as no-one would play with him or even talk to him and if they did it was just to remind him he was a freak. It was unfair on Cal but instincts were hard things to deny and the fact that the auphe were once human kind's greatest and most feared predator (in a time that was too far back to remember) didn't help things in the slightest. These senses humans carried around with them may have been prehistoric but they were there and they kept any human contact away from Cal. Sometimes Cal even doubted if he should be allowed around Niko despite the fact that Niko was the only human to give him no reason to believe he was a freak. The problem was, Niko was only one man.

Now, the people in the supernatural community i.e. werewolves, seers, revenants, ect, they were all well-informed enough to know to stay away from Cal without the help of instincts. Most of these creatures of the shadows could smell that there was something wrong with Cal and they didn't like it one bit. Living mostly among supernatural creatures he had been told enough times that his scent was less than desirable.

It wasn't just humans that were hunted by the auphe back in the dark ages. These monsters weren't picky about their what they hunted, as long as they got to play with their food first and play with it they did. Apparently in the most gruesome and incomprehensible ways imaginable according to Goodfellow who could very well have had first-hand experience in dealing with the auphe. No, as long as they had fun with their prey they didn't care what it was. So even though they were now all extinct save Cal, supernatural beings still had nightmares about them. So Cal was seen as the embodiment of a nightmare everyone wished would just go away.

For a moment Cal's thoughts went to George. The young redheaded seer was probably the only person on this planet besides Niko who loved him despite his supernatural side. Cal had loved her too, her purity and her sense of peace was simply entrancing. Also the fact that she didn't hate him because he was half auphe made her very special. Since she was a seer she could see that Cal wasn't a monster, just a young man in need of love and companionship just like anybody else. She was more than willing to give that to him but unfortunately he was not willing to take it. The reason being that despite the fact that he desperately wanted to, he felt like he was putting her in danger. Just being around him was dangerous and he wasn't willing to put her in those kinds of life threatening situations. There was also another reason. This young woman Georgina was quite possibly one of the most powerful seers in history but she never used her powers to try and change the future. She professed to Cal that she had tried many times, she had tried to stop the nice neighbour she used to know from burning alive in her apartment but she couldn't. She had tried to change many things before she then decided that the future could never be changed. She would help find lost pets and lost keys and maybe even take a peek into tomorrow but no matter what she would never look into the future and see something terrible happening just so she could experience it all over again in the present.

Cal had sighed many times over this situation. He had this woman whom he loved and who miraculously loved him but because she wouldn't tell him any damn thing he needed to know he could never be with her. Cal doubted that in this lifetime and in any lifetimes that may follow this one he would ever truly find love. Luckily enough Niko had found someone that he loved. She was a vampire whom they had met around the same time as Goodfellow. Cal didn't trust Promise. To be fair to him though she had never given him many reasons to trust her. She had told many lies and kept things from his brother. This had caused them plenty of grief. However Promise did make Niko happy and that was more than enough for Cal. He had learnt to care about Promise and he would protect her with his life but that still didn't mean he trusted her.

Love. Why did such a sentient emotion that was said to be one of the most noble things a being could feel, have to cause so much pain and confusion? The answer to this question elluded Cal just as it had done so many other people, human and otherwise.

* * *

Confusion and doubt clouded Cal's mind and made him more than a little worried. Not that his mind had ever been truly clear before but before it had been clouded with fear and death and primal urges that he found himself struggling more and more to ignore. Now his mind was focusing on things he had never stopped to think about. Like his failed chance at companionship, perhaps even love with a girl he cared about deeply or his brother's slightly disfunctional relationship with a dangerous woman who seemed to have no quams about lying to him. He never doubted that Promise cared for Niko, undoubtably loved him too but after seeing what he had seen of her and her life, he just couldn't bring himself to trust her with his brother's heart. Cal shook his head to try and clear it. He didn't want to think about his brother or his brother's girlfriend. The very reason he was out here alone in the first place was to get his thoughts in order and try and work out what in the hell was going on inside his fucked up head.

He tryed to think back to when this feeling had started, tryed to remember what on earth could have got him in this state. His world was not perfect by any means but it was stable ... for now and these feelings were rocking the scales of his conciousness back and forth and if he didn't find a way to steady them soon Cal was sure he would go out of his mind.

'Let's think,' thought Cal quietly to himself, finding it amusing that the one time Niko wasn't around to see it he was actually using his head. He racked his brain for god knows how long trying to find an answer and for the life of him, could just not remember when he started to feel this way or think these thoughts. Thoughts that were all but alien to him, thoughts that he tryed with his whole being not to think because they tended to hurt too much. Thoughts on love and his mother and his childhood, these were all the things he could not stand to have in his head. Yet here he was alone in the city contemplating aspects of his life that made him ache in places he couldn't stand to hurt. Bullet wounds were fine, knief in the leg no problem even a bite wound on his shoulder was ok. All that, he could live with but he had created his world to be carefully devoid of any feeling unless it was for his brother and even then he didn't express his emotions in any other way besides killing every flesh eating, bone crunching, rotten smelling monster he could get his hands on seeing as those he had been spwaned from were now extinct.

Someone or something was knocking the pillars of his carefully constructed world and that scared him. That scared him more than any auphe or monster or mother ever could. In fact the only time he could remember being more scared was when he thought his brother might be taken away from him and even then in his fury and urgency to stop that from happening he didn't have time to stop and contemplate just how freaking scared he was. Now he had time to do that. And in that awuful second he wished he had just stayed in the apartment and tryed his best to say something to Niko, anything, enough to keep him happy and then just go to sleep. Now that he had silence around him save the sound of a few cars and the distant sound of music coming from local clubs, some created for humans others not so much, he couldn't stop his repressed thoughts from haunting him. Being on the run for his entire life he never found the time to think about anything other than himself and his brother but now for the first time in his life he had time to think, I mean truly think and what lingered in his mind was freaking scarey. Although despite that, what lingered there was surprisingly human. There had always been that creepy voice in his conciousness telling him to cause pain and havoc but as he delved deeper he found entirely human musings on loss and fear and trust and for some reason that scared him a hell of a lot more than the creepy voice that no doubt belonged to his auphe side, the side he had been trying his entire life to push out.

* * *

It was getting late, very late but Cal didn't notice. He had no watch and his phone was turned off. The concept of time elluded him for now and he didn't seem to care. In fact it was probebly better that way. You could tell how late it was getting by how seedy everything seemed to become. You have no idea what kind of things the dark hides until you actually enter it and see for yourself. As Cal walked deep in painful contemplation he still keep his senses alert. Not by choice, it was just a skill he had devised since he couldn't affoard to let his guard down at any point.

The young man lost count of how many prostitutes both male and female, both human and otherwise who aproached him. Some were a little more heavy handed than others when trying to make a sale but none of them got agressive so luckily Cal didn't have to remove his handy little knief from his boot. Some of them called him gorgeous but he knew they were just trying to entice anyone who could pay them money. They would have dimissed him without a thought if they knew Cal had no means of doing that nor did he want to. The supernatural sex workers smiled when they saw his face but when they caught his scent he was pretty sure not even the most desperate whores would come anywhere near him. You needed a special kind of whore for that occassion. His mother was a good example of this rare breed as she got paid by the auphe to bring Cal into the world.

Cal knew he was good looking. Not through evaluating himself in the mirror or through the comments of others. No he knew he was good looking thanks to his mother. He still remembered plain as day the time when he was about eight years old. Niko was out trying to get together whatever money he could to support Cal and himself. The younger of the brothers was left alone in the trailer with Sophia.

Sophia was gorgeous like all wicked fairy tale mothers. She had long inky black hair and a stunning olive complexion. She also had two incredibly beautiful stone grey eyes, grey eyes aren't normally a sign of beauty but they fitted Sophia like a glove. Cal looked a lot like her, he had inherited her hair and her eyes not to mention her fortuneteller like voice. Her voice was another thing about her that was beautiful, she could make 'you're going to meet the tall, dark stranger' sound exciting. Despite his pale, Auphe like complexion Cal was the living image of his gorgeous mother. However her beauty was not what told him he was attractive like she was. It was Sophia herself that told him. It was by no means a compliment however.

Cal was a surprisingly good child. He was quiet and did as he was told. It wasn't until he realised fully where and what he had come from that he started to develop a defensive attitude. Anyway when he was eight years old he was sitting in the trailer doing his homework like Niko told him to when Sophia entered in all her fairy-tale glory with a drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Niko had always told Cal to ignore her and everything she did and said so that is exactly what the young boy was doing. He kept his head down not once looking up at his mother until her shadow fell over him. He put his homework behind him for fear she may snatch it away out of pure spite and looked her in the eye. She had discarded her drink but still held her cigarette. She took a long drag while contemplating her youngest son and blew the smoke into his face. He tried not to wince as it would show weakness and even at eight years old Cal knew that being weak in the face of Sophia never led to good things. The cruel woman chuckled at her son and then opened her plump lips to speak.

"Well you may be a monster," she said with a look that portrayed both repugnace and pride at the same time as she reached over and hooked some of his silky black hair behind his ear, "but at least you're a beautiful one."

After saying that she grinned and turned her back on him, picking up her discarded drink and walking out leaving Cal confused. Even as an eight year old he knew her words weren't a compliment, they just served as a reminder that no matter how good looking he was on the outside, he was rotten to the core on the inside. That was another trait he shared with Sophia. This had been cemented in Cal's mind ever since. It had become clear to him that he should never consider himself good looking because his outsides would never change what he was inside. What confused him however was the fact that Sophia hooked his hair behind his ears. In all his life he had never expected such a gentle touch from that woman. Maybe it was the influence of the alchohol but he had a feeling she was proud of him for being beautiful. More likely she was proud of him for being so deceptivly beautiful like she was. She was proud of him for being able to hide how repugnant he was behind a veneer of silky hair and ivvory skin.

Since that day Cal had become the type of person who didn't want people to know he was attractive. He had developed an unattractive attitude to show people what he truly was. If it meant his mother cease to be proud of his deception then that was fine. He would not pretend to be beautiful when he wasn't. He would not be like Sophia who used her beauty to lure people to her. No, if it meant no-one came to him as a result of his repulsivness then so be it, at least he had Niko.

* * *

As Cal manoeuvred his way through the dark and the prostitutes not to mention whatever else was lurking in these streets he thought that while he still had Niko, what else did he have? Niko had promise but who did he have? He had never asked himself this question before but lately it seemed to be playing on his mind like a relentless tune you just couldn't get out of your head no matter how hard you tried. His mind had never wanted or longed that for anything before in his life why was it starting now? What in the world had happened lately that got him thinking about what he didn't have?

Cal once again wracked his brain, looking through the events of the last week. Yet again he couldn't find anything that could have caused him this mental distress. From the eyes of the average human this wouldn't be considered distress, it would be considered normal musings and longings for something that was missing in one's life. But Cal was not the average human and these kind of thoughts and longings went to normal for him he preferred his world to be hard and cold that way he could avoid more pain. He wanted his to be like a stone which was the hardest coldest thing he could lay his mind on. He wanted this to be so because you can't hurt a stone.

* * *

It had been an exceedingly long night, so much had gone through Cal's mind. Probably more than had gone through his mind in the past year.

He took a quick look around to try and familiarise himself with his surroundings. He recognised when he was immediately. He was in Central Park, luckily for him he hadn't wandered into a part where there were any boogles nests ... well none that he knew of. Anyway he doubted that there were any supernatural beings around this part of the park. This was a park where most humans hung out and despite the fact that a human hangout was like an all-you-can-eat buffet for most of supernatural creatures the latter tended to hang out in seperate areas that were not too far from the snack bar but far enough that they didn't alarm a large group of humans. Cal could rely on the fact that it was so late to assure himself that there would be no hunting to make as most predators knew, it was usually slim pickings at the snack bar when it was this late. Despite this the ice-cream shop was still open. It was called Val's and it served the best mint chocolate chip ice-cream Cal had ever tasted. Of course Niko really ever let him eat ice-cream on account of its high fat and sugar content but whenever the elder Leandros was feeling lenient Cal would go straight to this particular shop and order a double scoop mint chocolate chip ice-cream with colourful sprinkles and a chocolate flake.

Cal took a moment to hate himself for not having any money, he knew that ice-cream shop was open 24 seven and the one-time he was able to buy ice-cream without his brother's say so he had no money with him. Cal was surprised that ice-cream shop was still in business, after all who eat ice-cream at this time of night. Of course he usually went to the 18 shop owned by George's family. Sometimes he went to say hello or to ask for the assistance of her seer abilities. The ice-cream was good there but it wasn't a patch on Val's ice-cream.

He walked closer to the shop and inhaled the relaxing smell on the cool night air. He then shook his head, he shouldn't do that it was making him hungry. Then he saw it, he saw her, he saw the person who was making his mind so disoriented. There she was, just across the street from Val's. He couldn't understand why he didn't remember her. She was a Cult vampire, an entirly different specise of vampire from Promise (and a much more powerful one to boot). He had never met her, never so much as spoken to her but when he and Niko had been hierd for a job by her brother he had made eye contact with her. She had smiled cunningly at him but underneath that cocky top layer there was somthing else behind that smile. Something that was an awful lot like understanding. Like a kind of understanding he had never seen before. Like with one look she had seen his soul, seen his past, seen everything that he had been through and she understood it more than anyone else ever could. It was stupid to think she could do that and it was only a few seconds of eye contact but it was enough to make him loose sleep at night. It was enough to send his mind into a whirlwind of confusion, doubt and fear. It was enough to make him miss things he had never had. It was enough to rock his perfect stone world and as he looked across the street and made contact again with her pretty, laughing eyes in the surpirsingly powerful light of the moon, he felt like it was enough to make his heart melt and long for all the things he had never had. Things he had given up on ever having ... like love.

_Hi everyone, did you like it? This is my first multi-chapter Cal Leandros story. I wrote this because I created this story with my own characters but I want to know if the story is any good so I have borrowed Rob Thurman's boys and adjusted the story to fit their world. This is an introductory chapter so I'm sorry that there isn't much action but I promise there will be a lot more action from here on out. I wrote this as the first chapter so you can all see my view on Cal and his world. Please review and tell me if you want to know what happens between Cal and this mysterious Cult Vampire. Things get rather steamy as there is a lot of sexual tension in this story not to mention a whole lot of blood to go along with it._


	2. Chapter 2

Ice-cream. It was a beautiful thing. So many flavours so little time. When you wanted to buy an ice-cream there was usually just vanilla, chocolate and strawberry if you didn't go to a proper ice-cream parlour. Boring and unimaginative flavours that did nothing to satisfy Cal's sweet tooth ... well maybe chocolate was ok but it's was nothing special. Cal often went for cherry chocolate chip but since he had discovered Val's he had taken to eating mint chocolate chip. The refreshing smell of it was always soothing and it never failed to calm him down after a job or if he was angry.

Right now he felt like he could do with some of that ice-cream because the woman across the street was making him feel ... he didn't know exactly what this feeling was. He had never come across it before. The mere act of looking into this woman's eyes made him nervous, on edge and strangly hot. His bare arms began to heat up despite the cool New-York night air and suddenly his lack of jacket didn't look like too much of a problem. He tried to continue walking like he hadn't seen her but even Cal knew he failed in this act. Despite this though he continued to walk hoping his confusing thoughts would return to take his mind away from the present, hoping he would start to feel the cold again. Hoping he would wake up and this woman would just be some kind of weird dream, but he didn't and she most definately wasn't. What was this woman's name again? God, she had gotten him into this terrible state of mind and he didn't even know her name. He racked his brain trying to remember what the Cult Vampire he and Niko met with had said which was an extremely hard task seeing as he was only half paying attention at the time.

This woman was that Cult Vampire's sister and he had definately pointed her out to them, that's how Cal got to notice her. It was him pointing her out that started all this and Cal couldn't even remember her name. Damn it. What was it? Lucy? Lisa? Linda? ... Lucinda! That was it! Her name was Lucinda.

And _Lucinda's _footsteps could be heard following him. Cal's hearing was better than most human's but all Cult Vampire's were experienced hunters, they had to be considering their diet depended on it and therefore they would know how to keep quiet esspecially during the night. So this begged the question of whether or not this Cult _wanted_ Cal to know she was following him. Cal spead up his pace but if there was one thing he knew about Cult Vampires it was that they were fast. Inhumanly fast. As he continued to speed up his pace and didn't hear her footsteps getting any quieter he realised there was no chance of out running her so he decided to turn around and face her.

"What the Hell?" he said very irritably as he turned around and came face to face with her.

"Hi," she said in an aggrivatingly cheery voice.

Normally if a supernatural preditor was following him in the middle of the night Cal's first insinct would be to grab a weapon and defend himself but from what he remembered about these creatures, they were Cattle Drinkers. Which meant they didn't use human blood to sustain themselves but they also couldn't use Iron pills like Promise did as their bodies were built very differently to hers. The term Cattle Drinkers didn't just mean they sucked on cow's blood, it meant they used any animal that came to hand. Some did it because they prefered the taste of animal blood and others did it because they didn't like their prey to be able to talk and plead with them. They didn't enjoy seeing such blatent suffering. Surprisingly Cult Vampires had very large conciences. Also another reason Cal didn't feel the need to arm himself in the face of this dangerous woman was because the air she was giving off was not a preditory one ... well as a matter of fact it was but not in the way he was thinking. In fact when he looked at her the look he saw was hungry but the type hunger he saw there made him want to run for the hills not fight like his instincts _usually_ told him to.

He knew neither of those acts were options so he settled for just gritting his teeth and glaring at her, praying that looks had suddenly gained the power to kill. As he looked at her close up he couldn't help but notice how beautiful she was. She was not stunning like Promise because she was in no way perfect, her hair was little messy, hair nails were all different lengths and her clothes were ... well her clothes were much like Cal's. She was by no means a lady like Promise. However neither was she beautiful like George. George was truly beautiful if your eyes were open to what true beauty was. She was the opitomy of innocence and purity. Lucinda was like that in no way. She was a woman who smelt of danger and darkness but oddly enough she also had an air of kindness and wisdom eradiating from her like she had seen a lot of things in her life both good and bad and from that she had learned some things no-one else knew. Also from the way she was looking at him Cal could feel and air of understanding from her aswell. The same feeling he got the first time he saw her, like from one look she knew what he was feeling, what he had been feeling his whole life. All the lonliness, fear and anger locked away inside him was reflected in her eyes and just for a moment Cal thought that he could see himself in her. Like she had gone through everything he had gone through and then some. He couldn't quite place his finger on it but there was something familiar about that look in her eyes and for a long second Cal found himself lost, there was so much depth to her eyes he didn't know if they would ever end.

A sly, preditory smile spread across her features as she continued to look at Cal in silence showing her perfectly shaped teeth. One thing that seperated Cult Vampires from Vampires like Promise was the fact that Cults had a set of perfectly normal teeth but when feeding or in times of high emotion another set of teeth descended from their gums. They were all large and pointy and made it hard for the Cults to close their mouths. These teeth were also laced with venom that could either numb someone or kill them depending on how much venom the vampire chose to deploy. Cal had seen other Cult vampire draw these fangs when he and Niko went to talk with them but he wondered if hers would be any different. Cal took a moment to hate himself for giving her so big a space inside his head but as he watched her long dark brown hair that reached past her mid-back, blow in the gentle wind and looked into her eyes that were an indiscribable shade of green Cal wasn't sure he minded her occupying his thoughts. Then Cal's defensive attitude kicked in and he pushed out any musings he was having about this woman he didn't even know, turned around and continued walking hoping like hell she wouldn't follow.

As he turned into an alley that was between shops, all of which were closed, Val's was really the only one that was opened at this time of night he came face to face with the person he had just walked away from.

"Why are you following me?" said Cal through gritted teeth.

"I want tae talk. Antony says ye did a great job a shiftin' those revanants away fae oor nest. Just wanted tae say thanks."

"You're welcome. Now push off." Cal turned around to exit the alley but Lucinda was already standing there leaning one arm against the wall. He hadn't even seen her move. Cults must be faster than he first assumed.

"Hey now. Thurs no need tae get nasty," she said with a grin. Her scottish acent rolling over the constenants and pronouncing the vowels with a smooth alto tone. "I asked around about you. Seems yer not one tae make a lot of friends."

Cal found himself getting angrier. She had 'asked around' about him. Sure she was within her rights to do that when they were working for her and her nest which is what a Cult Vampire tribe was called but her brother Antony had done all the following up on them and the job was finished so what did this woman possibly have to gain by gathering information about him? Who did she talk to? And ... what did she learn?

"I saw Niko a couple days before Antony hired ye fer the job. He looked like quite a tough guy and had a reputation fer smelling like a sheep and fighting like a frigging sabretooth tiger. I recomended him tae get rid a they revanats that hiv been rooting around like cockroaches. When he came tae the nest tae talk tae Antony I didnae expect him bring anyone but I could tell ye had a good set a teeth from the getgo," she said and drew her fangs out for a second to emphasise her point. Cal surmised that 'a good set of teeth' was a Cult's way of saying she knew he was tough. Lucinda withdrew her fangs and smiled agian. A smile which made Cal relax unconciously. "Didnae guess ye wur his brother til a couple of days ago though when I asked that Ishiah guy fae the Peris bar. You two don't look a lot alike."

"That's right," said Cal, teeth still gritted.

"Eh, is thur a reason fur that?"

"We have different fathers," said Cal and then his head shot up in horror. Why in the hell was he telling this bitch something so personal?

"Oh aye. I should hiv thought that wid be the reason. Yeeze both share a human mammy don't yeeze?"

That was the last straw. Cal marched up to her intent on pushing her out of the way but he knew better than to think he would be able to move her so he settled for moving closer and growling at her. He noticed thanks to a proximity that some people would consider intimate, Cal realised she was about his height, perhaps half an inch smaller and her clothes almost matched his. She was wearing a pair of loose fitting black jeans that were slung low on her hips revealing the slightest hint of a tattoo but Cal didn't have enough time to work out what it was. She also wore a red vest top that accented her clevage but not indescently. On her feet she wore heavy combat boots, the ends of her trouser legs tucked into them carelessly. What Cal found most interesting about her wardrobe was the comfy looking leather jacket she wore over her top. It was much like the one Cal had left at home in his hurry to escape.

"I'm not interested in you or you nest. I did the job you hired me to do so stop interigating me and move the fuck out of my way."

She leaned off the wall and tucked her hands into her pockets, staring into his steel grey eyes, not wavering in the face of his rage. A dark brown material headband kept her long hair out of her eyes. "I'm no interigating ye I just want tae know ye love."

Cal could have throttled her for calling him that but in the couple of hours he had been in a Cult's nest he had heard a lot of the scottish vampires call people love. Spouses, friends, cousins, anyone really. It must be a term used as freely as sweetheart of darling or something like that. Just because she reffered to him by that term didn't mean she meant it but even though it had been said in a casual way there was something in her eyes that made him think she did mean it and that more than anything else he had experienced tonight, scared him.

Cal's volume rose and he shouted, "Listen you cocky bitch don't follow me, don't ask people about me and ..." he lowered his voice to a dangerous level, "don't call me love. I don't want you to know me and I don't wan't to know you. I want you to fuck off."

Lucinda didn't move a muscle and her expression didn't change, "No ye don't," she said oddly sure of herself.

This bitch's self confidence further enflamed his rage. How did she do this? With one look she had managed to send him into the darkest most forbidden corners of his mind. With one smile she had managed to make him miss things he had never been owner to in the first place. Who was this woman? Why did she have such a huge affect on him? Why were all these feelings suddenly surfacing under her intense green gaze? Cal didn't understand how she could be so dangerous looking and still appear so kind and understanding. What bothered Cal the most was there was no-one in the world who understood him. Not even Niko understood him. Niko knew Cal like the back of his hand. They had spent their whole lives on the same path, running from Cal's nighmarish relatives. Niko had experienced the same life Cal had but there was a massive differnce between them. Niko was human which meant that even though he lived a life on the outside of humanity he still fitted in. He could talk to humans and be with them without having them running for the hills because their ancient instincts told them he was the spawn of their prehistoric preditors. Not only could he fit in with humanity but he could also fit in with the supernatural world too. Sure all supernatural preditors thought of humans as no more than sheep but Niko had proven that he was just as dangerous as they were if not more. Cal on the other hand couldn't be with humans or supernatural beings. He was too much of a monster to be welcomed into humanity and he had too much 'sheep' blood in him to be accepted by anyone in the supernatural world. Not to mention the fact that humans weren't the only creatures who feared his auphe half. That's why Niko couldn't understand him, he was caught between two worlds and it was slowly tearing him apart and the pain that came from that made the monster inside him stronger and more hungry. Niko had a dark side like everyone else but like most humans, he didn't use it. Cal's dark side was fighting for dominance every day of his life no matter how many times he tried to push it away. No matter how many times he tried to ignore the voice inside him that told him to cause pain and chaos that voice would always be there. He would spend his entire life fighting it and Niko had no idea what that was like.

But this woman did. He didn't know what it was about her but she seemed to know his pain better than anyone he'd ever met. He could see in her eyes that she knew the pain of being trapped between two worlds. She knew what crushing lonliness the feeling of no belonging could bring. Although for some odd reason she seemed at peace with all those feelings, like she had accepted them and in doing so she had become a whole person, something Cal longed to be. Cal didn't know how she knew these things, things he thought only he had been privy to and he was even more confused about how on earth she had managed to overcome them but he didn't want to stick around any longer to find out. This single meeting with Lucinda made Cal feel like he had known her all his life. made him feel like she knew him better than Niko and those kind of feeling were big no no's for Cal. Cal had never wanted or longed for anything in his entire painful excuse for a life and there was no way he was about to start with this Cult Vampire. In his mind wanting something you could never have made you loose focus on staying alive. George was one of those thing he might have wanted but to keep her away from his dangerous life style he had forced himself not to want. Not that Cal was happy with his lot because he most certainly wasn't but he wasn't going to waste his time chasing after his hearts desires because he had a job to do. That job was staying alive. He had to keep on living, for Niko's sake if nothing else and if he began fruitless persuits of the heart then he would loose focus on that all important job.

But right now he could feel it, that sense of longing that came with wanting something desperatly. How in the hell this woman got to him so fast and so easily was a mystery. How she had broken down his defensive wall with barely two meetings was beyond Cal but he could feel it. A sense of want more powerful than anything he'd ever felt before and it was starting to freak him out. Cal didn't crave nor did he long but this Cult was making him feel this over powering sense of want. That wasn't something Cal was prepared to feel. He needed out of here fast ... now.

"I'm leaving now," stated Cal. "Don't follow me."

The young man remained calm as he approached the vampire blocking the exit to the alley. His already rapid breath quickened as he stopped directly in front of her. His heart beat doubled when he realised how close he was to her. They were practically nose to nose, their skin was all but touching and their breathing was insinct ... well it was for a moment, Cal's breathing was twice as fast as Lucinda's. "Move," demanded Cal.

"Why?"

The young man growled as he could tell that bitch was enjoying this. "Move so I can get by you."

Lucinda's face was stotic in the moon light but Cal could tell that inside she was grinning maliciously. "There's plenty of room to get by me already."

While that was true Cal just wanted to avoid making bodily contact with her as if she would give him a violent electric shock if he did. "I said move."

"Promise said ye might be a bit like this."

Cal was shocked for a moment. What business did this Cult Vampire who lived a life with a comunity have knowing his brother's solitary, vampire girl friend esspecially when they were of completely different specise to each other. Cal stood back and took a deep breath in, composing himself, "You know my brother's girl friend?"

"Oh aye and I feel sorry for Niko, the poor bugger. She's a lying, manipulative piece of Ostinanious scum."

"Ostinanious?"

"It's the name of her specise. A weak, lonely waste of flesh is what that specise is."

"Sound like you've got an axe to grind with Promise," said Cal a little more conversationally than he had intended.

"I've never liked her specise they've always had shaky morals but Promise is the queen of shaky morals." Cal knew there was truth in that and wondered silently what Promsie had done to anger this frankly scarey woman. "But I guess I've met humans who are worse ... not many though. Even murderers and gang leaders have some sense of morals. Thin one's but they're there all the same." Cal shook his head slightly, he seriously doubted that some of the worlds worst humans had better morals than Promise. Promise had a concience even if she ignored it from time to time. Cal had seen and heard of humans doing worse things for personal gain, not to survive like other sentient beings did. This Vampire had a strangly warped idea of humanity.

"Then why go to her for information."

Lucinda's annoyed expression turned into a cheeky grin, "You were worth the aggrivation of sitting in the same room as her for a little while."

Cal did quite know how he felt about this admission but it gave pause to think of Promise and Lucinda sitting in a room after the latter having threaten the former thoroughly for a word or two about her boyfriend's half auphe little brother. When Niko had accepted the job from Antony and told Promise about it she got worryingly pale in the face and didn't say another word regarding the job or Cult Vampires in general. Cal had surmised that she had some unknown reason to be scared out of her wits by them but Cal didn't press her for any details. He'd probably just get half answers anyway. After seeing the way Promise had reacted at the mention of this vampire nest it wasn't hard to imagiene that Lucinda had scared some info out of her. Now that was two people he knew of that Lucinda had talked to about him. First Ishiah and now Promise. Who else did she talk to and why was she even doing so in the first place? What was so important about him that she was so eager to find out?

"Well aren't you a good little stalker," Cal said with a sarcastic tone and a sneer on his face.

Lucinda merely chuckled, her eyes closing for a second and her head turning to the side in an almost shy gesture. "Yeah I suppose I am ... but the good news is my nest would never have me commited," that was probably true since she was their leader's sister. "Besides that I found out a lot of interesting things about you. I know where you live, where you work, what you and your brother do. I know what kind of clothes you like to wear, what kind of food you like to eat and you don't even know my name," she paused waiting to see if Cal would answer and when he didn't she smiled and said, "Lucinda Macbeth is my name. If Antony introduced me as Lucki don't bother repeating it. He made that up when I joined the nest, the cheeky son of a bitch," she said the words fondly and with a far off look on her face. The she turned back and faced Cal with a serious but kind expression portrayed entirely by her eyes, "I understand what you're going through, how you feel. I know who your mother is ... I know who your father is."

In that moment something inside Cal snapped. "I told you to get out of my way," he said in a dangerously low voice and without warning he grabbed Lucinda by the front of her leather jacket and threw her against the alley wall. Unprepared as she was Cal mangaed it with surprising ease. Despite being rather tall she was quite light. Sure her frame was slim but she had a fair bit of muscle that should have added strain to Cal's arms when he picked her up but it didn't.

From the sound of her body connecting with the wall Cal surmised that it must have hurt like a bitch but he did want to stick around to find out. He began to stomp out of the alley when Lucinda grabbed his wrist. Again her Cult Vampire speed was so fast that Cal didn't even see her get up. "Maybe I can walk you home," she said in her usual cheeky tone, completely unphased by the fact that he had just violently thrown her against the wall. As Cal felt his hand being grasped he stood still for a moment, his brain trying to process what it was as he still hadn't got to grips with how fast Lucinda could actually move. Then his brain caught up and he realised Lucinda had grabbed him and asked to walk him home as if he had actually shown a single bit of interest in her. Damn her. Damn this bitch and her unshakable self-confindence. As his trapped wrist twitched Cal made note of the fact that Lucinda's skin was a little rough and caloused. It was obviously tough skin that had been torn apart and healed up more times than he could imagien but it was kind of nice. Cal looked down at his pursuers appendage, she had nice hands. Long slender fingers that were probably deceptivly strong. Not that he could tell for sure as the grip she had on him was relitivly light, almost gentle. It would have almost been pleasant if not for the fact that her hands were inhumanly cold (was that a Cult thing or did she just have terrible circulation?) and also if not for the fact that Cal really wanted away from her as fast as possible. This woman was testing Cal's patience and the worst part of it was, there wasn't much to test. He felt completely freaked out by this woman. Strangely enough it wasn't the woman herself that was making him more scared than he had ever been in his life. No. It wasn't the fact that he knew she was by blood and nature a dangerous preditor (even if he wasn't her choice of food), it wasn't the fact that she was obviously a kick ass fighter which could be told by just looking at her. She carried herself with the dangerous grace Niko had but she also had an element of natural rage and supernatural survival instincts like the ones Cal carried with him, but she had better control than he had which made her all the more dangerous.

Despite all this Cal wasn't afraid of her for these reasons, not her specise, not her strength, not her skill, not even the concealed weaponry she kept on her person and Cal had seen when he got close to her. A dagger in her clevage, serveral guns strapped to her waist and strangley enough a long whip tucked into her belt was probably only a few of the items of defense which she carried around with her but these did pose any element of intimidation on Cal. What made him so ill at ease with this woman was the feelings she envoked in him. He couldn't say that they were even bad feelings. No. They were new feelings and good ones at that. Feelings that made him become warm, much like the hand on his wrist that had heated up rapidly at the touch of his skin. The problem was, that was what scared him. These feelings were too out of the ordinary for him. He wanted to deny them, push them to the back of his mind much like what he did with the Auphe voice that told him to do horrible things. Things he knew were wrong but the difference here was, he wasn't sure this was wrong. In fact since meeting this woman less than ten minuets ago he wasn't sure of anything and that's why he had to get away from her. The hand that had been so cold but was now warm thanks to the touch of his skin had to be removed and forgotten.

Angry at both Lucinda and himself for whatever reason Cal fiercely grabbed the slender yet strong hand hard enough to to make bones pop. Lucinda was prepared this time but she let him do it any way. Cal threw the hand away with such force that Lucinda stumbled a little at having her arm flung back so far. "You shouldn't follow me and you certainly shouldn't touch me," growled Cal his voice raised as his primal rage started to become more visable in his voice and in his eyes. "If you do either I don't care who you are or who you're related to I will cut out you fucking heart and laugh until it stops beating."

Cal was aware his Auphe side was begining to show but he didn't care, he had to get this confusing bitch out of his life but she wasn't fazed in the slightest by his Auphe rage. Instead she stood there with a calmness and paitence that was reminescent of Niko ... but Niko had never looked at him like that before. "I wouldn't mind," she said in a scareily genuiene voice. "I'd love to see you laugh. I'd be willing to bet my nest leader status that you have a beautiful laugh."

Then suddenly Cal realised that her slang pronounciation was gone. Her accent was still clear as a bell but he had no problems understanding her as she had ceased using words with dropped constenants and pronounced vowels. Was she doing this for his benefit? When did she start speaking clearer? Cal realised she had dropped her slang pronunciation a while ago. Round about when she started getting serious in the things she was saying. Why did she clean up her accent when she started speaking genuienely to him? Why?

This simple question pushed Cal over the edge. He had had enough. He couldn't take anymore of this confusing presence in his life. He tried to leave, she wouldn't let him. He told her to fuck off, she wouldn't budge. He tried to scare her, she wasn't fazed. For perhaps the third time in his life Cal's rage damn near reached it's peak. A red fog decended over his vision and his rational mind took a back seat.

No longer aware of what he was doing Cal grabbed a Desert eagle 22 from Lucinda's waist and before her brain constented to do anything he shot her in the shoulder. A loud bang erupted from the semi-automatic which, in a different state of mind Cal might have realised was his regular choice of gun. Another troubling fact about this woman, she carried the very type of gun he had chosen to use his whole life. If Cal hadn't been blinded at that present time he might have been compelled to feel that this wasn't a coincidence.

The Vampire's eyes became wide as her brain processed what had just happened to her body. She looked down at her injured shoulder, the bullet lodged within the skin. She always carried around 22s because she hated mess, she never like bullets to go right through the body but that also meant that she had to be more precise in her aim. Of course her centuries of practice left that as no problem for her and it fitted in well with her love of close and mid-range combat. She was stunned that Cal had managed to grab her gun and throw himself back with such speed and precision despite his enraged and irrational state and managed to shoot her without her being able to move. Her kind were quite possibly the fastest beings on this planet but still her brain didn't tell her to move. She was so captivated by his rage, a rage she had felt herself many times that she just couldn't bring herself to run from him. However that didn't stop her from becoming angry at his shooting her with her own gun. Lucinda slowly lifted her right hand to touch her wounded left shoulder. She then looked at her hand and took in the blood, the blood that he had caused to exit her body. She was the vampire, it was her that withdrew blood from the bodies of others. The drawing of a Cult Vampire's blood was sacred.

Cal lowered the gun as the red fog lifted from his vision and his anger started to become less pronounced. Now that his Auphe half had retreated to the back of his mind he didn't know quite what to do about the violent actions that had come about from letting it take over. He lifted his gaze and looked at the woman he had just shot. She was looking at her hand, taking in the blood that was on it. Cal then saw her fangs descend from her gums in an admission that she was either angry or hungry or both. She then lifted her head to look at Cal, her eyes blazing red. The whites of a Cult Vampire's eyes always filled with blood when their emotions became high. You could still see the green colour of her eyes but they didn't look so gentle and understanding when they were surrounded by blood. Cal heard something that sounded a lot like a hiss come from her mouth. She then withdrew her fangs but still the look of hunger remained. Cal tried to say something but before he could Lucinda jabbed her thumb and index finger into the hole in her shoulder and yanked out the bullet with such violent force that blood spattered all over Cal's face. He winced like she had sprayed him with liquid nitrogen but he didn't get to do anything else as she tossed the bullet aside and threw herself on Cal knocking him onto the ground. His back hit the hard stone pavement with a painful thump. However he didn't notice the pain as he scarmbled to get out from under her but she was not only faster and smarter but as he realised now she was stronger more than a woman of her stature should be ... a lot more. After less than a minute of struggling Cal found himself pinned under Lucinda's cold body, her eyes snarling down at him. She pinned his arms with her legs, his elbows under her knees. Her blood stained hand held his face to the ground. Cal responded in the only way he knew he could. He used his vicious tounge, "Get off me you crazy bitch," he screamed, thrashing around under Lucinda's weight but the vampire didn't budge. "Get the fuck off before I kick your ass to the bowels of hell.

Lucinda's snarling expression suddenly changed into one of mischief and playfulness. The very expression that he had been afraid of, a lot more so than her anger. "Oh yeah. I forgot you had the ability to do that. Apparently the Auphe are able to open portholes in the atomsphere so they can travel from place to place in the blink of an eye. The Auphe had no imagienation for anything except for torture, they didn't realise the power in such a talent or all the different things it could be used for. You apparently have inherited that ability from your extinct relitives," she paused and grinned wickedly. "I wonder if you have also inherited their fondness for blood."

She then shifted her hand so that it was above his lips, "Go on. I don't mind if you bite. I do it all the time."

Cal's mind whirled and spun and danced with all these feelings that had been previously rising to the surface and were now sitting directly at the front of his concious mind. He couldn't think, he couldn't move, hell he could barely breathe and the urge to stick out his tounge and taste a tiny bit of this vampire's blood was uncontrolable. A few seconds later Lucinda moved her hand away. Did he do it? He didn't think so. He couldn't remember doing it. But then as his captor smiled down at him and wiped her bloody hand on the sleeve of her leather jacket he could taste an all too familiar flavour ... and yet it was different to anything he had tasted before. It was sweet more than it was bitter like all the other blood he had had the misfortune to have in his motuh and he barely contained the urge to lick his lips and taste more. Silence was now existant between them and all that could be heard was the occasional drop of blood from Lucinda's open wound dripping onto Cal's clothes. It was such a small sound it was barely there but the impressive ears of these two inhuman creatures picked it up no problem. When Lucinda heard it she looked towards her wound and smiled as if she had forgotten it was there. Then she worked up saliva and spit a generous amount into the palm of her hand. She then shrugged off one shoulder of her jacket and placed that hand on the wound and applied a bit of pressure not even wincing even though it was bound to be sore. When she removed her hand Cal was amazed to see the wound healing before his eyes. When there was no danger of getting a lot of blood on her tounge she stuck it out and began licking the wound until it was fully healed.

"All the people I talked to. No matter who they were or how they knew you they all seemed to have the same opinion of you. They all think your fucked up," said Lucinda but not in an unkind way, "and fuck me if they weren't telling the truth but then again who isn't a little crazy?"

Even her choice of speech was like Cal's. The young man ceased his struggles and growled at her, "Yeah I bet if I talked to anyone you know I'd get their opinion that you are crazy."

Lucinda just smiled. "I bet you would and no-one says you can't. You're the only person I've met who I see more of myself in than anyone, even my family. I think if you talked to my loved ones you'd find more in common with yourself than you've had with anyone else."

Lucinda shifted her knees so that Cal's now numb arms were free. She then grabbed one of them, pulled Cal to his feet and then began gently massaging his aching forearms to get the blood flowing again. Cal snatched his arm away and turned so his face was dierctly in front of hers. He was about to erupt into the screaming fit of his life, he was about to stoop down, take hold of the knife in his boot and stab this bitch until she couldn't be identified. But something stopped him. Her body seemed to get warmer if she stood close to him but strangly her breath was always warm. It felt nice on his cheek and his anger died down as he stopped for a second just to feel it on his skin. Then he smelt something, something soothing, something that washed most of his anger away. On her breath he smelt something sweet and minty.

"Mint chocolate chip," he said a little absently. Lucinda looked confused. "It's on your breath," he explained.

Then the vampire's face broke out into this beautiful smile. "Oh yeah," she said in a very joyous, almost childlike voice. "It's ice-cream. Mint chocolate chip ice cream. My cousin Valintini owns the shop over there," she said pointing to the 24 hour a day ice-cream shop. That explained it's opening hours if it was owned by a nocturnal creature but what was it doing in a primarily human area of the park. She reached into one of the pockets of her leather jacket and pulled out a small tub of the very ice-cream Cal loved from the shop just down the road. "It's great," she said dipping her still bloodstained finger into the ice-cream, taking a generous scoop and then licking that finger. Cal was captivated by these actions. As she closed her eyes and licked the ice-cream from her long finger Cal looked at the tub in her hand and saw a tiny speck of blood that was on the ice-cream. At least a minute passed in silence then Lucinda's eyes widened and her nose twitched as if her sense of smell had caught something in the air. "Oh shit, I guess I best get out of here before your brother Van Helsing arrives," she sniffed again. "Well at least he doesn't have his Ostinitanious whore with him." She then turned back to Cal with a smile and handed him the tub. "Take it, it really helps if you're feeling stressed or angry. See ya."

And with that she jumped into the air and used the alley wall to jump further and further towards the sky. She jumped from one side of the alley to the other until Cal could no longer see her as she had acended into the night. The young man stood stunned for a moment then looked down at the tub in his hand. His eyes were directed to one particular place. The spot where Lucinda's blood sat. Not thinking he used his finger to scoop up some of the ice-cream on the spot and put it in his mouth just like Lucinda had done. His eyes closed and he savoured the taste. His sensitive taste buds picking up the sweet taste of Lucinda's crimson blood mixed in which the familiar soothing flavour of the ice-cream washing away all his anger and fear, his mind finally finding that long eluded peace.

Unfortunately it only lasted for a minute as his rational thoughts started to take centre stage in his head again. Did Lucinda just say she smelt Niko? He knew a Cult's nose was probably one of the best ones you could get so how far away was Niko? He could been anything from a 1 and a half miles away to a 1 and a half minutes away. Either way Cal knew he had to get out of there quick. He couldn't talk to Niko right now. How would he explain his absense? More importantly how would he explain the blood on his clothes and on his face? Also, he wouldn't get a chance to finish this ice-cream. He needed more time. Now that he wasn't so worried and stressed out he could go somewhere and think for a little bit. Strangely enough coming face to face with the cause of his confusion didn't add to the awefulness of his state of mind, it helped it.

So Cal had to get out of here fast, he couldn't walk or run seeing as Niko could be close so there wasn't enough time to make a clean get away but he had another option. One Niko had told him not to use but one his instincts had told him to use again and again. Lucinda had commented on how powerful a tool that could be. She didn't have to tell him, he had felt that power at his fingertips, coursing through his vains more than once and right now he could feel it happening again.

Good think no-one was close to that alley way at quarter to midnight that evening or they would have been awestruck by the strange energy and brilliant silver light that came to life there as Cal disappeared into the night.


	3. Chapter 3

Cal didn't know why he was here. All he knew was he he couldn't go home yet. He stared at the fancy building in which Robin Goodfellow lived and wondered why on earth he had landed here. What must he have been thinking? He sat down on a near by bench, the ice-cream still clasped in his hand. His hands were freezing but he didn't notice. The blood on his face and clothes made him feel strangely warm. He looked down at the tub in his hands. He didn't have a spoon so he scooped the ice-cream onto his finger in this same manner he did before he left the alley and put it in his mouth savouring the taste. There was no more blood on the ice-cream but the sweet taste of the chocolate companied with the tangy flavour of mint brought back the recent memory of the taste of her crimson blood in his tounge. His mind was now calm so even though he was still confused as hell about his own feelings he decided to just forget his worries for now. The ice-cream brought with it a soothing sensation and despite the fact that he wasn't use to such pleasant feelings he decided to savour it for a while.

After the ice-cream was finished Cal started to think about his situation again. Here he was outside of Goodfellow's apartment building as he needed someone to talk to who wasn't Niko and there weren't many other choices. He couldn't talk to Promise even if he wanted to because she would call Niko as soon as she saw Cal. He couldn't go talk to Delilah as she was busy with her own problems not to mention the fact that their relationship never consisted of talking, in fact it consisted of mostly just sex. Sleeping with Cal was bad for her standing with the Kin so they didn't see much of each other any more and if they did she might just decide she was going to kill him. He liked Delilha, she wasn't repulsed by his Auphe half so despite the fact that she might just decide she wanted him as an after sex snack he still let her sink her claws into him. He didn't feel love for her like he had for George, Delilah was more like a friend with benefits. He couldn't see George either as he had sworn off seeing her not to mention the fact that he doubted she'd be any help considering the way he was feeling at the moment. Yes, Goodfellow was his best option.

The door man recodnised him and let him in. If he was alarmed by the blood Cal was sporting despite have no visible wounds, he didn't show it. He had come to expect this kind of excentricity from Mr Goodfellow and his companions. Cal made his way straight up to Goodfellow's room hoping like hell Niko wasn't there. Luckily he passed none of Goodfellow's neighbours so he didn't have to endure the gasps or scared looks of any humans at this point. The young half Auphe stopped outside Goodfellow's door. He didn't knock right away. He had to make sure Niko wasn't there. Since the Auphe had an incredible sense of smell as did all creatures who hunted, Cal had inherited it. Sometimes it was a nuisense but it was times like this when he was glad he had it. He took in a deep breath sampling the air for his brother's familiar scent. When he didn't find it he felt it was safe to knock, esspecially since his nose confirmed that the horny immortal was alone and wasn't at this point 'entertaining' anyone. Within a few seconds of the knock Goodfellow opened the door. Despite thousands of years of stealing, flirting, bluffing and gambling Goodfellow didn't do a good job of hiding worry. When he was worried about something material he would probably shout and curse for a while but if he was worried about someone he knew and dare he say cared for ... a little bit ... then his face would become as expressive as that of a child. Cal noticed all this a few times when either he or Niko got themselves into deep shit which they did more often than not and when Goodfellow took in the blood that was on Cal's face and clothes he noticed it again.

The older being grabbed the man who compared to him was no more than a child, by the front of the shirt and dragged him inside. "Nice to see you too Goodfellow," said Cal dryly.

"Where in the name of Hades have you been? Niko's called me at least seven times tonight asking if I'd seen you. I'm calling him right now."

Goodfellow pulled out his cell phone to get ready to call Niko. Cal tried to make a grab for it but the puck, being god knows how much older and more experienced, dodged the oncoming attack with ease. Cal realised very quickly that he couldn't compete with Goodfellow this way so he tried asking. "Please Robin I'm going to go home soon I just needed time on my own to think and Niko wasn't going to let me out without an explaination and I don't know what's going on myself so I can't give it to him. All I needed was a little thinking time and I would go home now but I don't want to have to explain _this_ to Niko," he said gesturing to the blood. "He'll freak and then I'll never get to go to sleep and right now that's all I want to do. Please I just can't deal with Niko right now."

Robin stood looking at Cal. The young man had never looked so confused and tierd since he met him. The phone in Goodfellow's hand started ringing and Niko's name appeared on the screen. The puck looked at the phone and then back at Cal who was still looking at him with the same tierd expression. Robin pressed the answer button and brought the phone to his ear, "Hello Niko," he said steadily.

"Goodfellow have you heard from Cal yet?" The voice of the elder Leandros could be heard despite the fact that the speaker was off.

"Yeah." Cal tensed a little at these words. "He called me just a second ago. He's fine and he said you should go home and sleep. He promises he'll be home tomorrow."

"Why is he doing this? Is there something wrong?" asked Niko. Even though his tone was steady like it always was Cal could hear the confusion and worry and that made him feel a little guilty but right now he was just too tierd to care.

"He said he needed to think and you weren't going to let him do that until you got some answers. Answers which he didn't have. You need to give the kid some space sometimes otherwise this could become a regular occurance and no body wants that least of all me. Go home Niko and get some rest."

Goodfellow hung up the phone and looked at Cal. "You can stay here tonight and get cleaned up but if you breathe a word to Niko about being here tonight you're never coming in this house again."

Cal's lips twitched into a smile. "Now go get yourself cleaned up. Now. I don't want to hear another peep out of you for the rest of the night."

"You're not going to ask?"

"That's exactly what you ran away from so no. And plus knowing would just be more shit to deal with."

Cal shot him another tierd smile as he walked towards the guest room of Goodfellow's apartment. Once he was in safe solitude once again Cal felt an overwhelming urge to just collapse on the bed but decided it was a good idea to wash the blood from his face and clothes. All he would have had to do if he had been wearing his leather jacket was scrub it with a wet tissue but unfortunately he was just wearing a black t-shirt and he couldn't go home to Niko wearing that. It would open up a whole ugly can of worms. He couldn't borrow one of Goodfellow's shirts either because then his brother would know where he was as Robin's expenssive taste was very apparent in his choice of clothing while Cal's couldn't-give-a-damn style differed greatly. There was nothing of Goodfellow's he could borrow without giving away where he spent the night. Luckily enough the puck had a washer and dryer. Strange seeing as most of his clothes had to be dry cleaned and Cal doubted he wore most them more than once but right now he wasn't complaining. Robin huffed and agreed to throw his t-shirt in for a wash mumbling about how burning it would be a better course of action. It was a good thing no blood got on his trousers. He didn't want to sleep in Goodfellow's bed without trousers on. Not that the puck was interested in him, it just felt weird for some reason.

Cal stepped into the shower of the luxurious ensuite bathroom and turned on the water. It felt great on his cold body. What he didn't realised was that he had washed his entire body before finally turning his face towards the water and allowing the crimson liquid to slide off his skin. He didn't use shower gel on his face like he did on the rest of his body. He just let the water take the blood of his face and send it down the drain. Whether or not he forgot to use shower gel on his face or if he unconciously didn't want to wash the blood away will remain a mystery. Cal just stared at the shower floor until all the red liquid had disappeared down the drain. After that turning off the faucets he stepped out of the shower, roughly dried himself and threw his black jean back on. When I say roughly dried himself I mean he scrubbed himself with the towel for a few seconds then half dressed himself. Being wet never really bothered the young man. He'd more than once been so out of his head that he had stepped into the shower forgetting that he was still wearing sweat pants. On those occasions he had just squeezed the water out of them and put them back on. Most people would think he was crazy but then again Cal wasn't like most people so it was unfair to judge him by their standards. It was unfair but unfortunately it still happened. Even Niko judged him by human standards.

Goodfellow knocked on the bathroom door as Cal was just about to brush his teeth with his finger. "Come in."

Goodfellow entered the room and took in Cal noticing that the kid still avoided the mirror. His body was pointed directly at it and even if his face was too his eyes just never quite made contact. The older man sighed. "Look Kid I've made some soup. You should have some it'll help you sleep."

"What makes you think I need help?"

"You look tierd Kid but you also look restless so come on. Eat something."

Cal turned to look at the other man. Goodfellow was always so self involved, of course though you couldn't blame him having had all the people he made connections with die in what was a very short space of time for him ... but the puck could be caring too. Cal nodded and rinsed the toothpaste off of his finger. He then followed Robin into the fancy kitchen which Cal was certain was rarely ever used and saw two bouls of soup on the table. "Did you really make this?" Cal asked doubtfully.

The puck smiled picking up Cal's disbelief. "Oh you know me so well. No it's from the restaurant down the road."

Cal grinned, "Of course it is."

"I did heat it up though."

"When did you learn to do that?" Cal asked cheekily getting a little bit of his sarcastic demenor back which Goodfellow was surprisingly happy to see.

"Hey Kid I'll have you know I have learn more things than your pathetic little mind can even enumerate."

"Oh big word Goodfellow. Didn't know you were so clever."

"I'm stunned you even recodnise such a word you empty headed little lay about."

"Well I'm stunned you even got up off your ass to heat up your own food you dick brained old man."

This continued for a long while until both men had finished their soup. The older of the two men looked at his companion and fiddled with his spoon. "Look Kid if you want to talk about what happened to you tonight I'm all ears but if you just want to get some sleep then that's fine too."

Cal seemed to contemplate this for a moment and then looked up at his friend. "I've been feeling weird lately," he said with a deep sigh.

"Lately," joked Goodfellow. Cal glared at him as if to say, 'Do you want to hear this or not?'. "Sorry," he said truthfully. "Couldn't resist."

Cal sighed and continued. "At first it was just little things like I was starting to miss things I've never had."

"What things?"

"I don't know. Ordinary things like a girlfriend, childhood friends, a proper home. Things like that. Then it got worse. I started to get confused. I thought I knew who I was. I was a half auphe half human but now I feel like I'm not happy with just being someone who stays in the background because of how repulsive they are to others. I started to have feelings I have never felt before like ... well I don't know exactly what this feeling is. I'm not sure even it has a name. Niko noticed it recently and I knew he wasn't going to let me work it out on my own so I decide I'd better just ... get out. Thanks by the way for calling, that's actually how I slipped by him."

Goodfellow laughed heartily. "Well you're welcome. Even with a distraction slipping past Mr Ninja is an impressive feat."

Cal smiled, "Well anyway after I was out I just wandered around for a while I didn't even have a place in mind to go I just knew I had to think. At first I didn't know what was making feel this way but when I got to a row of corner shops in central park I found out. Remember that job we did for the Cult Vampire nest a while ago?"

"Oh yeah. That's the most power Vampire nest in the world. Cults are a really rare specise these days that's one of the reasons why most of them stick together. This nest has been around for as long as I can remember. I've known a few of it's leaders over the millenias but they've never exactly approved of me."

"Oh yes I wonder why," Cal chuckled. "Do you know the current leader?"

"Not personally but I do know the nest is right now run by two leaders. A brother and a sister. Can't remember their names off hand," said the old being as he placed a hand to his forehead in thought.

"You mean it's not just that guy Antony who leads them?"

"Antony that's the older one's name," declared Goodfellow clapping his hands. "No, him and his sister run it together. I don't know much about her. Outside of her nest she seems to be a shadow. She's not an easy person to study. All I know about her is she is four hundred and fifty something years old and she was given joint control of the nest with her brother after their father died. The members of the nest loved her so much they wanted to her to lead them as well as Antony and Antony himself was only too happy to share control with her. From what I've heard she's one hell of a leader."

Cal threw himself back and sighed his chair moved a little as a result of the impact. "What's wrong Kid?"

"Well I met the female leader tonight. Lucinda her name is. I actually saw her when Niko and I went for a briefing with Antony before we got rid of those revanants. She just looked at me and smiled. I didn't think much of it until tonight. Tonight I realised it was her that was making me so confused. I realised when she looked at me she really really looked at me. I don't know what she saw but she saw something. When I spotted her outside of that ice-cream shop, Val's which I now know is owned by her cousin, she followed me. I ducked into an alley between shops and asked her what her deal was. She just smiled and said she asked around about me and liked what she heard, said I reminded her a lot of herself. Being around her was starting to make me crazy so I tried to get past her but I couldn't. She was so fucking infuriating that I lost myself, grabbed one of her guns and shot her in the shoulder. She didn't even seem angry, she just yanked out the bullet, jumped me and pinned me to the ground. She told me she knew what I was and what I was descended from. She said she wondered if I had inherited my ancestor's taste for blood and put her bloody hand to my mouth."

"Wow. There must be something big she sees in you. The drinking or even the drawing of a Cult Vampire's blood is seen as sacred. If she let you taste her blood this is definately not the last you'll see of her."

"You think she'll come after me?"

"Most denfinately. I don't know what she wants from you but if she gave you her blood it's something big."

Cal's head slumped against the table. He was exhausted, confused and struggling to take in all that had happened tonight. "Right Kid I think it's best you get some sleep. I'm going to wake you early so you can get back to Niko."

Cal grinned, "Sure. Thanks."

And with that Cal returned to the guest room and without bothering to do anything else fell onto the luxurious bed and allowed himself to drift off into the only peaceful state he seemed to find himself in before this whole crazy day happened. Sleep.

The next day was just as bad as Cal had feared it was going to be. Robin had dragged him out of bed at half past seven in the morning and thrown his now clean t-shirt at him. Cal huffed but gave his face a quick wash and put it on. He was shoved out of the door without breakfast and ordered to return home without taking any detours. As Cal made his way back to his and Niko's apartment he was desperately trying to come up with any excuse to delay his return. By the time he had reached the door of the apartment he had come up with none. The young man was about to open the door when he realised that he had no keys and they always kept it locked. This was another annoyance. That meant that Niko was going to have to let him in and he was hoping he could slink into the room without being noticed even though that was nearly impossible. Cal could still hardly believe he had managed to get out of the house last night in the first place.

Cal was about to knock but before he could the door flew open to reveal an extremely pissed off Niko. As is sensing his presence Niko had flown to the door before Cal had a chance to knock and saw his younger brother standing there without a word to say in his defense. Niko stood aside to let Cal in but he didn't take his eyes of his brother. Cal came in but he slid in sideways carful not to touch

Niko or take his eyes off him as if he was afraid he would explode.

Once he was in the apartment he sat on the couch and awaited whatever Niko had in store for him. "Where do I begin Cal?"

"Where ever you want because I don't have many answers to give you."

"You mean you just broke out of the apartment for no reason at all."

"I didn't say that Nik. I just said I didn't knwo what the reason was."

Niko sighed, "Look Cal I'm not angry." Cal gave him a disbelieving look, "Anymore," he finished.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Since Goodfellow called me last night I did some thinking and I realised that maybe you did just need some time alone."

Cal smiled in gratitude. He thought he was in for something terrible when he got back. "I don't have all the answers yet but when I do you'll be the first to know."

"Good," said Niko. "For now though, tell me what you do know. Tell me what happened while you were out."

Cal took a deep breath, "Well ... remember that job we did a little while ago for that Cult Vampire nest."

"Yes."

"Well remember the leader Antony? He pointed out his sister to us. Well when we were there she looked at me. I know I sound like a high school girl but this wasn't an ordinary kind of look. It was weird. I can't explain it. It made me so confused and ... I can't believe I'm going to say this, it made me a little scared. Then tonight I saw her agian. Her name is Lucinda and she's been asking around about me."

Cal was satisied with what he said. It was the truth even if he had left some bits out. "Cults are dangerous Cal. She did do anything to you did she."

Cal tried to defuse the tension he saw in his brother's shoulders, "Fuck Niko I'm not some damsal in distress."

The elder Leandros' shoulders relaxed a bit but his stare didn't waver. "Cal what did she do."

"Nothing," he lied. "She just said some weird things that made me want to run for the hills. I called Goodfellow last night and he said from what he knows about Cults, she most likely wants something from me but he doesn't know what that something is."

"What did she say when you met her?"

"She just said she'd asked around about me and liked what she heard. She said she knew what I was and understood how I felt but the whole time she was saying ti she had this look in her eyes. This look I can't describe ... it's all a bit of a jumble Nik. I can't make sense of any of it."

Niko sighed and put his hadn on Cal's shoulder. "Ok but next time I want you to come to me with something like this."

Cal nodded not bothering to say that he couldn't because he had no idea what the problem was at the time and discussing it with Niko didn't seem to be an option anyway because Niko had no idea how his brother felt.

When Niko went into the kitchen throw some cereal and soy milk into a bowl for breakfast Cal threw himself back into the sofa and put a cold hand to his forehead. His own cold skin reminded the young of how Lucinda's felt against him. He also remember how her warm blood had felt on his face, how it had tasted on his tounge. Cal licked his lips unconciously and then became angry with himself. What was this woman doing to him and why couldn't he stop it. He would just have to wait until he came across her again to find out.


	4. Chapter 4

Cal woke up drenched in sweat for the fifth time this week. It had been almost eight days since he last saw Lucinda and the effect she had on him had not lessened in the slightest. If anything it had increased. The young man looked at the clock on his bedside table. It was 5:30 am. God even Niko wasn't up yet.

Cal threw himself back onto his pillows in frustration. No-one should occupy this much of his mind. It was infuriating that almost every time he tried to fall asleep he saw himself pinned to the alley way floor with Lucinda looming over him with a hunger in her eyes, her blood dripping on his face and clothes giving him a disturbingly warm feeling. God if only she wasn't so damnly diobolically beautiful. How could she look so dangerous and so gentle at the same time. Her tone when she spoke to him was threatening but there was an undertone of of kindness and there was a need in her eyes. It was the same need Cal felt in his heart. He didn't know what she wanted from him but a small part of him wanted to give it to her.

Though right now all Cal wanted to do was sleep and forget all this confusion. But he was up now so he may as well make himself some breakfast. The first time Cal had awakened early since he had returned from his 'great escape' Niko nearly had a heart attack. It was probably his healthy eating obbession that saved him from one. Cal never got up early. Over the years Niko had come up with very inventive and sometimes cruel ways to coax his younger brother out of bed. Cal being awake before Niko just wasn't something anyone who new the Leandros brothers well could fathom.

Cal had already finished his breakfast and was in the process of getting washed when Niko was awakened by the sound of the shower. When Cal came out after just lazily tossing on sweatpants and not even bothering to dry himself properly Niko was standing in the living room leaning against the couch. "Another rough night?" He asked.

"Yeah," said Cal dismissivly.

"Maybe we can get some help."

"What are we talking here Nik, hypnosis or some shit," said Cal sarcastically.

"Nothing so drastic little brother. I though maybe getting out the house for a while would help. Robin scooped up this new client and he wants us to meet with him this bar called 'Millenia'," Cal just shrugged. "You have barely been out of the house since you bumped into that Cult last week."

"So?"

"So you're coming to this club whether you like it or not."

"Fine Nik. Whatever you say."

Niko was seriously worried about Cal recently. He hadn't been acting like himself lately and Niko was willing to bet his black belt that this mysterious Cult had had more of an effect on Cal that he'd first believed. Maybe more had happened that night in the alley way than Cal told him. Plus the younger Leandros had never explained where he'd spent the night. While it was normal for Cal to close himself off like this Niko had always managed to get through to him in the end. This time was different. It was like Cal's mind was somewhere else. A place Niko couldn't reach and had no hope of ever reaching.

"What time does Goodfellow want us to be there for?"

"He said half past ten at night when it will be dark."

"Why?"

"This bar is targeted to nocturnal creatures so that will be not far from the time it opens. It will most likely close when it's light."

"Right. Is this bar picky about what people wear?"

"I don't think so but Goodfellow is. He'll want to pick out what you're wearing since this is his aquantence."

"Well Goodfellow can just go suck himself."

Niko almost smiled. Now that was the Cal he was use to. "I wouldn't say that to him. He just might try."

Cal chuckled and went to his room. Niko hoped this change in Cal wouldn't last that much longer. He missed his younger brother's smart aleck attitude.

When the clock struck ten o'clock at night Robin Goodfellow came knocking at the Leandros' door. He took one look at Cal's outfit which consisted of black slacks and and a black Armani shirt which Promise gave him for his last birthday and said, "I refuse to be seen in public with this crime to fashion. He can't even where a top designer without making it look ridiculous."

"Well if you don't want me there I'd be more than happy to stay behind."

"Nice try Cal," said Niko. "You're coming."

"Yeah Kid. I've never been to this club myself but aparently it's pretty popular."

"I remember you claiming that there wasn't a top club in the world you haven't graced."

"Well Kid the club isn't top class _until_ I have graced it."

"Are you sure we'll be able to get your enormous ego through the front door?"

"It will be easier than getting someone with your ridiculous fashion sense in."

"Ok that's enough," said Niko in his usual calm, warning tone.

Cal almost grabbed his leather jacket on the way out but Robin stopped him. "That's where I draw the line. It's warm enough outside for you to go without a jacket."

Cal almost told Goodfellow where to go but after a warning look from Niko he just sighed and said, "Fine Goodfellow lets just get this over with."

And with that Niko turned out the lights and locked the door. The three men then made their way downstairs, got into Goodfellow's car and made their way to the club.

* * *

If we leave Cal for a moment and go to the club called 'Millenia' we would see that Cal wasn't the only one who was dealing with turmoil in his mind. At the bar of Club Millenia was a woman who was looking rather solom. Her name was Lucinda Macbeth or Lady Lucinda to her fellow nest members. Her brother Lord Antony was the only one among the vampire community who called her plainly by her name. Well sometimes he did, the rest of the time he used his nickname for her which was Lucki. She never saw the connection between that nickname and her own given name nor did she see any connection between the name and her life but he insisted on calling her that and after a while she seemed to get bored of arguing. Now the name sounded rather endearing but only coming from Antony's lips. She wouldn't let anyone else call her that name. Not much was known about Lucinda even to the people of her nest. There was only a select few of her closest confidents that were privay to such information about her and they wouldn't betray Lady Lucinda's confindence if tongs of fire were singeing their flesh. She hated that the people she loved insisted on calling her by her title but most of them were centuries old and they had found it difficult to let go of the respectful beliefs they were raised upon. She was quite happy when some of her nest members consented to call her Lady Luck. She found the name rather amusing and enjoyed being known by it.

Right now though Lady Luck was feeling down on her luck. Her solom face was clear to anyone who looked at her. It was unusual for her to act so withdrawn. A Cult Vampire by the name of Red who was Lucinda's cousin noticed this and walked through the crowd of dancers on the club floor to sit and talk to her. The music was loud enough to enjoy and dance to but it wasn't blazing so it didn't drown out any sound. "Hey Lady Luck," said the tall female vampire. She was beautiful but not in the same way Lucinda was. Red had the kind of beauty that hypnotised and entraced whereas Lucinda was the kind of person who didn't want people to know she was beautiful. Red's long brown hair, a shade lighter than her cousin's fell across her right shoulder in a side plait and her emerald eyes were cheerful as she contemplated her solom little cousin. "Tell me what's bothering you," she said in her soft Scottish accent that was similar to Lucinda's except for the fact that Red had grown out of the strange pronunciation. Lucinda talked without pronuncation when she was talking to someone whom she wanted to soften her speech for and they were a very minuet group. Despite being able to understand the manner of speech, Red was one of those few.

"Nothing's bothering me."

"Ok you don't have to tell, I know you well enough to guess," her face took on an exaggerated look of contemplation and she made a humming noise. "Hmm, now there are only a few things that could make you this quiet and I know that there is nothing wrong with the nest or anyone in it including Lord Antony so that only leaves one thing. You must have met someone who makes you think about your old life and you are trying to think of a way to help them and make them better like you did for yourself. I also know why you constantly do that but I will keep that to myself."

Lucinda looked at Red. "Well you're half right," she said and then took a swig of her beer.

"Really? Well would you be so kind as to fill in the gaps for me?"

"Well you are right about the fact that I've met someone and they remind me of my old life and I want to help them but it's not the same as the other times I've done it. This time there is something more. I've never felt this way before."

Red looked shocked for a second and then a smile found it's way on her face. "There's a man out there who reminds you of you and needs your help and on top of all that you think your starting to develop feelings for him?"

"I've always cared about the people I help. Take Levi for example."

"Ah yes. You bringing him into the nest was quite possibly one of the best desicions you ever made."

"Yes but this time it's different. It's like I don't just want to help him. I want him. I've never felt this kind of hunger in my entire life."

"I know what you mean. I fell for someone of another specise before and the hunger I felt for him was something I couldn't sate. We all know that didn't end well. Tell me about this man of yours."

"He's beautiful, of course he is," she paused and swigged from her bottle again. "And really fucked up in the head."

"Of course he is," Red said slowly with a smile. There was no way Lucinda could fall for someone who was any less fucked up in the head than she was.

Lucinda picked up on the insinuation but didn't comment on it. "And he's like me."

"Like you how?" Red knew Lucinda, having been through a lot herself, had a spoft spot for those who had had it rough like her but she had a sneeky suspicion that that wasn't what Lucinda meant.

"He's a Hybrid." The beer bottle was nearly empty now though Lucinda still had a few sips left and she would savour them.

Red sat dumbfounded and then said, "He's not...?"

Before she could complete the question Lucinda said, "No he's not half Vampire. He is half human like me but his other half is... Do you remember the Auphe?"

"The auphe? Flesh eating elves who thrive on torture and are rumoured to have wiped out the dinosaurs? Sure I remember them."

"Well his daddy was one of them."

Red could have laughed at the irony of this meeting of souls. "Well at least he has a good excuse for being so fucked up."

"He's lived his life as a human which means his behaviour and his qualities are very human when his emotions aren't tested. Much in the same way that I have lived my life mostly as a vampire so I act like one."

"Sure I get it. Well what are you going to do about it?"

"Well he's acting much in the same way I expected him to and the same way I would've in his situation. He is confused and angry and would rather I just got out of his life and out of his head," Lucinda savoured another small sip of her beer. It was Carona, one of her favourites. "So Red you've had more experience with relationships than anyone in the entire nest. What do you do if love would rather put a bullet in you several times over than listen to what you have to say."

"Well Lucinda sweetpea I'm not I Hybrid like you and this guy of yours are so I have no advice to give you about the feelings that should be between you. Still you're quite possibly the wisest in this nest even if you are one of the youngest. You will figure it out." Lucinda smiled she loved how Red knew exactly when she needed to hear her name from the lips of someone she cared about. "What do you think?"

Lucinda thought for a moment. "I think if want him enough I should let him shoot me. It's taken a lot more to get people to listen to me before and I've never backed down from anything I want."

Red smiled and grabbed Lucinda's arm. "That's the Lady Luck I know. Now come on. A good dance will make you feel a million times better."

Lucinda swallowed the rest of her beer and followed her cousin onto the dance floor.

* * *

The club was pretty decent looking but Cal could immdiately tell that it was a non human club through his impressive sense of smell and what he smelt made him very anxious. Most of the scents he picked up were that of Cult Vampires and he thought, 'Shit this is a Cult's club.'

Still he couldn't say anything to Niko. He could talk to Goodfellow but what good would that do? He decided that because they were here to meet a client there was no way they were leaving now so to save himself some drama he decided to keep quiet about what he smelt. Just because this was a Cult's bar didn't mean she'd be there. Then again Goodfellow had told him Cults were a very rare breed of vampire and there was barely one nest per country so the odds were that Lucinda at least came here every once and a while. Cal just hoped like hell she wasn't there tonight.

Compared to many of the other clubs Cal and Niko had visited in New York since they had moved here this one was pretty nice. Cal could safely say that of all the flesh eaters of the world, it was Vampires who had the most class. The Cults that were up on the dance floor moved with a lot of grace, they appeared to be very slick creatures and a lot of the females knew very well how to shake their hips. Goodfellow went to find his aquantence and when he spotted him he waved Cal and Niko over. "Nik, I'm going to get a beer or something. Tell me what I miss."

Cal didn't drink very often. If he did it was only a couple of beers maximum. Having a mother who drunk constantly kind of put Cal off having anymore than a small amount of alcohol. Niko might have objected and told Cal to come and talk to the client. Not because of the alcohol just because he didn't want Cal to be in the dark about any aspects of the job but he did want Cal to relax so he said nothing as his brother walked away and he went towards Goodfellow and the client.

After ordering a beer from the reasonably young Cult behind the bar, although young for these people was probably about 300 years old. Cal sat silently at the bar and drank from the bottle he was passed. "Enjoy," said the bar tender and Cal's heart sunk and sang at the same time as he realsed that these Cults were probably part of Lucinda's nest as the bar tender had the same accent as her.

He found some peace in the music and the atmosphere. It was surprisingly friendly, unlike many of the other supernatural clubs he'd been to or in some cases worked in. Perhaps that is why it was a good location. Cults never bothered with anything that wasn't their business and the music wasn't loud enough to drown out sound but loud enough to keep people from hearing your conversation. The music itself was extremely varied. It traveled back and forth through the ages. Probably because the regulars of this bar were old enough to have a very wide musical taste.

Cal was half way through his beer when someone came to sit next to him. The man was very tall and broad. He looked like he could lift a car clean off the ground if he tried but he had kind brown eyes and looked like he wouldn't enjoy killing a fly. He also had soft brown hair that resembled Goodfellow's even though the former probably didn't pay half as much attention to his hair as the latter did. "Can ah get a double scotch please Romulus," he said in a deep southern accent. From the sound of his voice Cal guessed he was from Kentucky or somewhere like that. From his scent Cal knew he was a Cult but the Cults in this nest were all Scottish. Maybe he was from somewhere else and was just here to check the place out. Cal knew most Cults traveled with their nests but some traveled alone or in small groups too.

With a friendly smile the large man turned to look at Cal, "Hi," he said nicely. "Ah know you ain't no Cult. Ain't got the right scent on ya," he paused. "So what cha doin' here?"

Cal turned to glare at him and the man immediately held up his hands in defense. "Hey no offense there man I'm just askin'. Everyone's welcome here, the boss' rules." The Cult then held out his hand and said, "Name's Levi de Morio." (1)

Cal shook his hand absently. "I'm here with my brother and a friend. They thought I needed to get out for a while," he half lied. "What are you doing here?"

"Beg yer pardon," Levi asked blinking a little.

"No offense to you either," began Cal, not wanting to start a confrontation. He just didn't have the engery for one at the moment. Still this guy, despite his appearance didn't seem like a confrontational person. "But I can't help but notice that all the Cults in this nest are Scottish. Are you just visiting."

For a second there Cal though the big man might get angry but then a small smile graced his soft features. "First off, no offense taken. Second, I am a member of this nest but that didn't come without work or help from a certain Lady Luck."

"Lady Luck?" Cal questioned.

"Nest secret," said Levi kindly. He then down his scotch and slapped Cal on the shoulder surprisingly gently for a man with hands as big as his. "Nice takin' to ya. You should come back some time ah could introduce ya to Lady Luck."

The large man walked off before Cal could object saying he had had enough trouble with Cults already.

The young man turned away from the bar to look onto the dance floor. Many Cults were up there moving gracefully despite the fact that the current song that was being played was a hard rock song. Cal swept his gaze across the club watching all the Cults decorate the room. The just as the song finished and the music changed Cal spotted something he had been hoping not to see. (2)

There on the dance floor moving her hips to the music was Lucinda. She was dressed in fitting dark brown trousers tucked into knee high leather boots to match. Her hair was loose and wavy and she was wearing a bright red top that hugged her neck and had a oval shaped cut in the centre exposing the middle of her chest. The sleeves hugged her wrists in the same way the top did her neck but they were loose around her arms. On the whole Cal though she looked fucking amazing. The way she danced was incredible. She moved with the same grace and movement of her hips as all the other people on the floor did but what was different about her was the expression on her face. Her eyes would close every now and then and she got this blissful, far off look on her face as if she was imagiening someone was with her. Her honest countenance was the epitomy of love and passion and suddenly Cal felt like he had to leave.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see his brother standing there looking concerned. "What's up with you Cal?" He asked gently, "you've been staring into space for almost five minutes now."

"Have I? Look Niko I think I should go home."

"Cal..."

"It's not far, I can walk. Goodfellow can drop you off. I'm fine really."

Niko seriously doubted that and was about to follow Cal but Goodfellow stopped him by shaking his head. Niko remembered what Goodfellow had told him on the phone last week and thought that maybe Cal did need some time alone. Cal kept his head down and made for the club's exit. It was dark and his hair hid his face so he thought the chances of getting out un-noticed were not bad. Cults usually minded their own business so no-one took any notice of him as he walked through them. It was strange that they had perhaps the bext sense of smell of all the creatures on this earth but not one of them was disturbed by his Auphe scent. The young man reached the door and exited the club. When the cool air touched his skin through the thin shirt he let out the breath he hadn't realised he had been holding and took a moment cursed Goodfellow for stopping him from taking a jacket. He wrapped his arms around himself and was about to walk home when he was greeted by a pair of familiar green eyes, the whites of which were submerged in red.

* * *

Cal stared at those red and green eyes for a moment then turned and tried to walk away hoping she wouldn't follow but knowing that there was very little chance of her staying put. He highly doubted she had come out here for a ciggarette. Goodfellow had told him that Cult Vampires thanks to their extremely hightened senses could rarely stomach smoking or anyone who did so. Cal wondered if it was too late to take up smoking and as he saw Lucinda's bright red top and matching eyes snap into view he realised it was far too late. Fuck she was fast, that really pissed him off, the fact that he couldn't escape from her but ... then again he could. He could use his gates to escape but that made him feel so damned guilty. Strangely enough when he was around her the guilt lessened a little. The gates were a part of him like her fangs were a part of her. The voice inside his head hungering for chaos was no different than her lust for blood. Still he just wished she would get away from him. I mean it wouldn't be so bad if it were just her physical presence that got to him that way she would just be annoying but there was something else she carried with her that affected him, something that made Cal want her and hate her at the same time. Lucinda insisted in the alley way that she knew Cal wanted her and her cocky self confidence in the matter wouldn't have been so bad if she was wrong. Cal knew there was something about her he wanted, there was no point denying it seeing as he had spent over a week dreaming about her. Flashes of her warm blood dropping on his skin flashed through his head and memories of the sweet, tangy flavour teased his tounge and he shivered in the here and now.

"You should have brought a jacket," said Lucinda kindly and she held out the leather jacket she was holding. "If you're walking home do you want mine's for now? Don't worry it's unisex."

"Get out of my way. I don't want your jacket and I don't want your concern. All I want you to do is leave me alone."

"No you don't."

"What do you fucking know you arrogent bitch. You don't know me."

Lucinda go this strange look on her face and suddenly Cal felt like he had spoken an untruth. "Oh yes I do. I know you better than anyone on this earth could ever hope to. Ever inch of pain you feel in your heart I've felt it. The burning lonliness you have in your soul, I've felt that lonliness too. I know you better than you know yourself at the moment Cal and if you let me I can help you. All you have to do is listen to me."

Some part of Cal wanted to listen to her. He wanted know what she had to say. If they were as alike as she said they were and she had overcome what he was still struggling with then maybe he should give her a moment to say what she had been chasing him to say but then another part of Cal's mind came into play. The part that didn't trust people, the large part of his brain that thought that everyone but Niko lied. This part took control of him and narrowed his eyes at Lucinda, "I don't want to hear anything you want to say. You turn up in my life claiming you know me and you have an answer to my problems. No-one can fix me and no-one ever will."

"You're right Cal. You're not human and you never will be but that doesn't mean there is something wrong with you. You may be decended from creatures that once terrorized the earth but that is who they are it does have to be who you are. My father was a bastard but neither me or my brother have become like him. I know you are curious and you want to know what I'm talking about. You just don't trust me enough to let in me. Besides your brother you've been alone for your entire life. It's only him you've loved and you don't feel like you have room for anyone else."

"Why are you so sure I want anything to do with you. I don't know you."

Lucinda lowered her head and sighed. "At first I wasn't sure. I look at you and I see someone who reminds me so much of myself, more than anyone I have ever met and I worry sometimes that you really do want me to fuck off but then I look into your eyes and I am reminded of the look I use to have in my own and that makes me feel like I should stay."

The two hybrids stood in silence for at least two minutes before Cal regained himself and said, "Look I don't know you and I don't know what you want. All I want to knwo is what is it going to take to get you out of my life?"

"That's up to you Cal."

"What?"

"Even if I stopped seeking you out you'd still think about me. You'd still remember the feel of my warm on your skin. You'd still remember the taste of it on your tounge. You still remember how fast my body heated up when I was close to you, how you felt in your heart when I looked at you like I was the only person you've ever met who really sees you."

Cal tried to ignore the words as they were burying themselves in his subconcious and it was adding more weight to his already troubled mind. He just wanted to get away from ths woman but she was right even if she left him alone he would still think about her, about all those new feelings she has given him. He'd still dream about her when he closed his eyes and wake up sweating. "Whyat do you want from me?"

"You know that Cal. I want everything. I have seen things which I have wanted, people I have cared for and I have always got them to come to me in time."

Cal walked around her with his arms wrapped around himself no longer trying to protect himself from the cold but rather all these new feelings which ironically enough made him feel strangely warm. "You're point?" He said through gritted teeth as he walked away.

Lucinda ran in fron of him at Cult speed and replied, "My point is when I was fourteen years old and ostricised by the Cult community I said I would become the leader of that nest one day." Cal kept his head down not looking at her and trying not to listen but Lucinda continued not bothering to chase him in favour of shouting after him. "I swore to myself that if I saw anyone experiencing the same pain I once did I would do everything in my power to help them. My point is it doesn't matter how many times you shoot me I'll still be around." Cal continued walking and he was quite a distance away from Lucinda now but her voice still traveled his way and the last decleration was the one that stuck with Cal the most. "MY POINT IS I WORK HARD FOR WHAT I WANT CAL LEANDROS AND I WANT YOU."


	5. Chapter 5

Hi everyone. Still working on the next chapter of Watch Your Neck. I've been looking to make the chapters longer but I thought Cal walking away from Lucinda was a good way to end the last chapter.

Anyway I've written a little extra story on the side called 'A Visit of Another Kind'. I didn't include it because I didn't want to change the rating of the story and this extra has Lucinda and Cal doing some rather explicit deeds. Though I do believe it is a powerful portrayal of their relationship. I had lots of fun writing it so I hope you'll all have lots of fun reading it.

Oh and a couple more things. I meant to add foot notes at the end of the last chapter but I forgot so here they are.

(1) Levi's name is pronounced Lee-v-eye not levy. I just thought it was imporant that people should know that.

(2) The song Lucinda is dancing to is 'Left Outside alone' by Anastacia. I thought it was appropriate considering the situation of Cal and the past of Lucinda.

Anyway, I hope you are all enjoying the story. Please review and tell me what you think so I can get some insight into people's thought on Cal Leandros.


	6. Chapter 6

Levi de Morio was a simple man. He didn't need much to be happy; all he asked for was people around him whom he cared for. It was people like this who were his reason for living.

500 hundred years ago when human settlers were starting to come to America, Levi's family came too. They were a very tiny group of Vampires but they expanded their nest when they came across some lone vampires in the form of Native Americans. Unlike humans they didn't want to force the natives out so they merged together and in time their power grew stronger and their small family grew larger.

They lived in peacefully anonymity for over a hundred years but as America grew so did the competition for its land and that was not just among humans it was among vampires too. Back then vampires were not as rare as they are today but they was still a minority so if one nest threatened another then it was a fight for survival and a fight for your family.

This was such the case with Levi's nest. They were threatened by a heavily armed and powerful nest that saw their land and wanted it. It went against a Cult vampire's instincts to kill their own kind. It was a physically and emotionally damaging thing that would stay with them forever, something that not Cult could bare to live with so the way Vampire's defeated each other was perhaps even more cruel than death. They would leave the bodies of their opponents so broken that fighting would be impossible.

There were only two ways to kill a Cult vampire and one was by starving it of blood and the other was by ripping out its heart. Even without a head a Cult could still live and through talents such as Levi's it could be reattached or in a very long space of time, as much as five decades, the head would re-grow.

Many heads were removed that day and Levi, who was the only one left standing, did not at that time have the skills to heal his nest. He stood on the bloody battle field, almost as broken inside as his nest was outside. He knelt on the ground weeping for hours without stopping, he could have gone for days if it were not for the pleas that he heard from the fallen members of his nest who were broken but still had their heads. They professed to Levi that the pain was too great and they wanted to die, he had to find a way to let them die.

At first he refused many times but the pain of his family was just too hard to bare, he couldn't leave them here to die the horrible death of starvation and he couldn't find a way to feed them as this was no longer their territory. The young vampire often spent times wondering how Cults could not kill their own kind but breaking them beyond repair was fine and leaving them to die did not damage a Cult's emotions or physical state. He often spent times hating his own kind for that. Such incidents did not happen anymore because there was barely one nest per country these days and nests had a tendency to move around and travel after a while if their land and surroundings cease to meet their needs or please them.

Young Levi scoured high and low until he came across a pack of werewolves who were close to ravenous and he gave them the opportunity for food. He told then if they removed the hearts of the members of a fallen Cult nest and left the hearts unharmed then they could feast on the corpses. The wolves jumped at the chance to enjoy the fine feast that was Cult meat and agreed to leave the hearts unharmed once they removed them.

He was unable to give his family a proper Cult funeral which consisted of wrapping the body in pure white material, laying it on a bed of wood and setting it on fire. So he cremated the hearts and scattered them in the ocean hoping his family could rest in peace there. Distraught and alone Levi took to the life of a lone Cult, something that was frowned on it Cult society but he had no choice. He travelled far and wide gaining knowledge and experience some of which was to do with medicine and healing as he never wanted to be powerless to help anybody again even if it was too late to help his family.

He was around 400 years old when he met Lucinda. She was a Lady and he was a lone Vampire, he never would have expected her to even notice him much less talk to him but she did. She knew the pain he had suffered for all those long centuries. They didn't have exactly the same experiences but they both knew what loneliness was, they both knew what it was like to lose family. Levi was amazed that Lady Lucinda still remembered her human mother seeing as the woman had died when she was fourteen years old and she was into her third century when he met her.

"Hello friend," Levi heard a voice say. He was picking up some fruit from the market in city of Venice, the year was 1880. He turned around and saw the smiling face of a beautiful Cult Vampire. Her smile reminded him of his cousin who had died all those years ago thanks to that terrible battle.

"Hello," replied Levi not knowing what else to say.

"My name is Lucinda. My nest is planning to settle here for a few decades, I want to make sure we are not stepping on the turf of any other nests."

"Oh no, my nest perished many years ago. You have no need to worry, as far as I know there are no other vampire nests claiming this territory at the moment."

Lucinda tilted her head to contemplate Levi with a solemn expression on her face and it was like with one look she had seen all he had been through and knew his pain. Levi shook his head knowing that there was no way that was possible.

"Anyway, there are no worries over territory on my part that is exactly what destroyed my nest. It was lovely to meet you Miss Lucinda."

"Dine with us," she said as he was walking away.

"I'm sorry?"

"Our food is plentiful. Please dine with us tonight."

This was highly unorthodox, Cults didn't dine with strange nests unless it was organised by leaders and lone Cults certainly were never invited to dine.

"Shouldn't your leader be asked?"

Lucinda smiled cheeky smile, "Trust me, Lord Antony will be fine with it."

"Thank-you. You are very kind but I'm afraid I must decline," and with that he left without another word.

He thought that would be the last he heard of the strange young Cult but it was not. When he got back to his residence she was waiting for him there. "How did you get in here?" he asked dropping into a defensive stance. The woman just smiled and stood up from the chair she had made herself comfortable on.

"That is not important. You left before I could ask you if you are free for dinner tomorrow night if you can't make it tonight."

"It's not that I am not free..."

"I know that I was just trying to be polite. Here is the deal. You come to dinner or I will make myself comfortable here every night until you do."

"What do you want from me?"

"I thought I made that clear, I just want you to join me and my people from dinner."

"Who are you?"

"Lucinda Macbeth." The name rang a bell for the young lone vampire but he couldn't place it at this moment in time. "Look at it this way, isn't it better to endure my company for one night rather than come home to find me here every night?"

"Very well, I don't know why you are so eager for me to have dinner with you and your nest but I suppose I'll find out when I get there."

"There is really no reason expect of the fact that the life a lone person is a hard one, I know that and that is why I want to provide you with what I was deprived of for such a huge amount of time not that long ago."

Lucinda made her way towards the door. "Wait you haven't told me where and when this meal is taking place."

Lucinda turned around and smiled, "I wrote a note and left it on your table before you got here."

And with that she left, Levi picked up the note which told him the time and the place he was required to be. He was feeling nervous about this but he thought agreeing this queer woman's request was the best course of action. She seemed like she was a woman of patience with no little amount of a stubborn streak and she would go through with her passive aggressive threat. Considering the fact that he was going to dine with a nest for the first time in centuries he dressed in some of the best clothes he owned and he owned a few thanks to his abilities as a doctor and the earning that came with such talents.

He arrived at the designated place at the time requested and waited to be invited in. He stood outside the rather modest but beautiful chateau that over looked the canals. This nest must be one of note if it used a place such this as its base. The door was opened by a woman who bared a slight resemblance to Lucinda, not much but her hair was similar and the same cheeky grin spread onto the woman's face as it had on Lucinda's earlier that day but something told Levi that this grin was a much more predatory one. Not a predator of blood but of ... something much more base, it made Levi shudder as it would any man.

"You must be the lone Cult Lady Luck was talking about. Come in. Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Red. Help yourself to a drink."

Levi did as he was bid and looked around for the woman who had invited him. "I was invited by a woman by the name of Lucinda Macbeth could I enquire as to where she is?"

"Lady Lucinda, yes I can't fetch her for you. Please wait here."

The woman by the name of Red disappeared from sight and Levi was frozen in place. Lady Lucinda? He knew the name Lucinda Macbeth was a familiar name to him but he had not taken the time to place it. Every vampire, lone or otherwise had heard of Lady Lucinda, she was one of the two vampires who turned this nest into the most powerful on the known world not to mention the fact that her very existence was impossible as she had been sired by a vampire but born of a human which for the thousands of years of history had been thought to be impossible. There was not a Vampire alive and very few supernatural creatures who had not heard the name of Lady Lucinda, how could his sharp mind have missed this.

The woman, Red reappeared excitedly dragging the well known half Cult half human behind her. "I do so love introducing my cousin Lady Lucinda or more affectionately known among us as Lady Luck but I believe you have already had the pleasure."

"I certainly have but I was not aware of who I was speaking to. My apologies Milady."

"No apologies necessary. You're here as a guest."

"Forgive my scepticism but to what cause?"

Lucinda sighed but she smiled as she did it. "Very well I will give you my reasoning but first join myself and my kinsmen and women in a feast celebrating our arrival in this beautiful city."

"I would be honoured," Levi smiled and let he relax and enjoy the evening. He talked to many Cults of the nest and was surprised to see that no-one seemed bothered by the presence of a lone Cult. This nest seemed to be quite liberal and unprejudiced. The reason for that probably being that they were led by someone they had once considered an abomination and yet had thrived under. The smart beings had probably learnt that it was the person that couldn't not what other people thought of them, the existence of Lady Lucinda had taught them that there was value in the form of outcasts. The dinner was wonderful; he was seated beside Lady Lucinda who was at the head of the table along with her brother Lord Antony who shook his hand warmly saying his sister had spoken of him highly. It was odd how she had done that when they had just met that very day. Although according to the people he had talked to Lucinda was a wonderful judge of character. It warmed his heart see that someone found value in him especially someone of such note.

"So Levi," Lord Antony said in an inquiring voice when Lucinda left the table for some purpose. "I understand you are a doctor."

"That I am Lord Antony. May I enquire as to how you came across that information?"

"My baby sister unfortunately is no longer a baby in anyone's eyes but my own and as a result of her growth she has acquired some wonderfully frightening skills. One of those skills includes the ability to know everybody's business. Even more impressive is the ability to keep her mouth shut about such things she knows unless pressed by someone she loves."

"She is certainly a remarkable woman."

"That she is, undeserving of any man in this world or the next although most would have it that she stayed here and lead this nest forever."

"I cannot see it falling under her hand. I have only until now heard stories that have come from far away but after meeting her and talking to people she knows and loves I can see that the stories weren't exaggerated."

"Such stories that circulate the air do not do her justice."

Lucinda reappeared and tapped Levi's shoulder, "I would have word with you now as to why I asked you here."

Levi stood up and followed his hostess until they came to a study of which everyone was cleared. "Sit," she said indicating a chair. He obeyed; ready to hear whatever it was she had to say. "I understand your scepticism when I asked you to dine with us but as you can see we are not prejudice here."

"Your doing I believe?"

"Partially but I also believe in the intelligence and tolerance of my people. Cults have always been practical; it is the reason why females have such a high station in Cult society while in human society they are seen as merely weak child bearers. May I ask where do you come from originally?"

"I was born in a place that is now known as Kentucky located in east Central America. I often go back there to live among my family's spirits. It is sometimes a comfort to live among your own kind even if they are dead."

"I can tell you have been there frequently, you retain the accent they have adopted in that part of America. I suppose your family was destroyed in a battle over territory." That wasn't a question, she knew.

"That is true though I'd rather not linger on such a painful subject."

"Why? You have obviously been carrying it around with you for centuries. Allow me to take some of the load off because I wish to tell you my own story and I believe in giving in order to receive."

Levi thought for a moment and then spoke, "Very well, if you must know, you are right my nest was destroyed in a battle over territory and I was forced to find a means for them to die so they didn't have to wait for starvation to take them. Ever since then I have wondered alone."

"Do you wish to wonder with your own kind once more?"

"I wish for exactly that but I know it will never happen."

"We shall see. I believe you will change your mind about the impossible when you hear what I have to say." Levi's head turned upwards at these words. He was anxious to hear what of the legends was true. "I adored my mother, I still remember her after all this time. I mostly remember how she use to sing to me. Old Celtic songs would put me to sleep up until I was twelve," she paused. "This nest was born in Scotland and while it was resting there its leader came across my mother and I was born from their union. It was not a union of love like children are supposed to be born from it was a union of physical pleasure. My mother had hell hiding her pregnancy and my father would give her no aid, he was outraged that a human was carrying his child as such a thing was meant to be impossible. She gave birth to me in secret with the help of my brother Antony who was also outraged at the notion of my conception but he helped her out of charity and loyalty to those who shared his blood. He often tells me how he was the first to hold me and for a moment he never wanted to put me down but after remembering what I was he handed me to my mother and left, a decision he begged my forgiveness for. I lived with my mother for the first fourteen years of my life until the Cult society decided something must be done about me so my father came and took me, killing my mother when she resisted." Lucinda's eyes took on a haunted look. "If had been stronger then maybe that wouldn't have happened and don't bother saying anything because I know that is how you feel about the death of your nest," Levi's mouth shut and he didn't interrupt like he was going to. "They gave me to my brother to be cared for; I still remember the look on his face. It was like he was outraged by what I was, like he loved me but didn't want to love me. When I cried at night because I was scared of what they would do to me he spoke harshly but you could see it killed him to do so. I once even awoke to find him holding me as if he would never let go but he did. When the nest decided they couldn't kill me they decided ... they decided."

"I have heard this part of your story. I believe I understand what they decided to do."

Lucinda nodded, grateful that Levi had interrupted her at that point in her story. It was far too hard to tell. "After that happened they threw me out on the side walk and ordered me to leave. Before I left I vowed to them that I would one day rule this nest and I was true to my word. I travelled the earth for centuries learning every useful art I could get my hands on. I became a fighter, a lover, a politician through the tutoring of a lover, a strategist, a linguist and on occasion I allowed myself to learn some of the more enjoyable arts like dancing, singing, painting although I after all these years I have never obtained the ability to paint even a stone wall." Levi chuckled. "But I know I am I strong."

"I know you are too Milady."

"Lucinda please I grow tired of such a title."

"It is title that comes with being the leader of a nest," Levi said with a little smile. "I am afraid you must learn to deal with it until Cult society grows out of it. Sadly I don't see that happening any time soon."

"Then address me as Lady Luck if you must."

"What does that title imply? I see no connection with it to your life or your name."

"My brother said he was distraught and full of guilt the moment I disappeared from sight and it took him years to come to his senses and begin looking for me. He came across me back in Scotland where the nest had decided to resettle for a few decades, as you know it is natural for a Cult to miss home. He brought me to the nest and since our father was never there to do any leading even though he was to the leader Antony and I took charge. It took a long time for them to accept me but when they saw my worth they grew to respect me. Respect turned to appreciation and appreciation coon became fondness. It wasn't long before love followed and I became Lady Lucinda after Lord Balthazar died not that anyone truly missed him. He was away long enough for people to quickly forget him. Antony said he was tired of saying my full given name as it was too long. I told him he must get use to it but like the stubborn man that he was he gave me the name Lucki, taking the first three letter of my name and replacing the Y with an I to turn a word into a name as he said that I was the embodiment of the Luck that this nest had been waiting for. I tried to break him of this self induced habit but he would not be broken."

"Lord Antony is much like you. If I hadn't already known he was your brother I would have guessed."

Lucinda smiled, "I suppose you understand now why I wanted you to come here. No-one should be alone and I make it my task to never leave anyone I see alone or discarded. I will not allow anyone to experience the hell I did." She paused taking a breath as her speech was becoming quite impassioned. "Shall we to dinner?"

Levi got up and wordlessly followed her so that they may finish their meal. He expected that to be the last he saw of that nest but strangely he wasn't surprised when Lucinda turned up at his door every day for a week insisting to him that he was a member of her nest. He would believe her at first but then he slowly began to hope again. He followed her back to the chateau two weeks later and there he was birthed into the nest. He swore a vow to honour and serve this nest and everyone in it he added that he was forever in Lady Lucinda's debt and intended to repay it for the rest of his life. He also swore to convert to the life of a cattle drinker. He had drunk cattle blood for centuries now to sustain himself, he indulged in human blood every once and a while but it was a rarity and even then he never killed. Human drinkers were rare nowadays as humans were starting to notice that their own were going missing and many Cults grew tired of living in fear of discovery like they would if they started feasting on humans. Human society was just beginning to abandon their belief in creatures of the night in favour of what their sciences could prove so Vampires and now many other creatures were choosing to live anonymously among them. The crest of the nest was placed around Levi's neck and he became a member. People welcomed him with open arms but not open hearts; he knew they didn't do it out of badness. If he wasn't born in this nest he knew he was going to have to prove himself worthy of being a part of it like Lady Lucinda had to. It was easier for him since he didn't have to deal with glares and looks of disgust. It took little time for him to gain their respect which he in the form of his fighting skills with a staff and his abilities as a doctor not to mention his impressive I.Q that eclipsed that of Cults much older than him. He possessed skill, knowledge, intelligence, kindness, loyalty and many more notable qualities which gained him the respect he deserved. It took a while for the nest to love him because they were unconsciously afraid to get too close to him because it was hard to accept him as one of their own but as soon as they allowed themselves to learn about Levi and know him as a person he was without a doubt part of their family.

In the present Levi sat at the bar of Club Millennia nursing a dry whiskey. The place was not opened yet but being a member of the nest so close to Lucinda he was allowed access. Romulus was working again tonight so he was in setting up. "What's up Levi you look like your mind is on another planet?"

"Do you remember the name of that half human who sat here last night?"

"Can't say I did. Although I did see him watching Lady Lucinda dancing."

"Who doesn't watch Lady Lucinda dance?" Levi smiled.

"Yeah, especially these days. She seems like her mind is somewhere else, imagining someone is with her. I've never seen that expression on her face before or anyone's face. It's the face one might make when they are in the middle of making love to the love of their life. Maybe Lady Lucinda is dreaming of love."

"I believe she is."

"I wonder who she's dreaming about."

"Don't wonder anymore. I know who she's dreaming about," said Levi, a knowing smile creeping onto his handsome face.

Romulus leaned over the bar with his ear pointed in Levi's direction, "Like I said, he was sitting right here all but sixteen hours ago."

"You mean the half human?"

Levi smiled again, "Precisely. I saw Lady Luck follow him out the door the second she felt his scent get thinner."

"He's half human, we know that but what is the other half?"

"It took me a while to decipher the scent since I have never smelt it before but I'm pretty sure it is Auphe."

"Auphe? Oh God, remember how nasty those bastards were?"

"I know, the last Auphe/Cult battle was three hundred years ago, I thought they were all vanquished?"

"And Lady Lucinda wants him? Well I suppose I can see it, he's a good looking guy who possesses the same qualities she does and Lady Luck has always been a sucker for people who have shared her unfortunate fate. I just never thought anyone existed who shared it so closely." Romulus paused, "So what does he think of all this?"

"Cal is his name. Cal Leandros."

"Cal then, what does he think of this?"

Levi downed the rest of his whiskey and grabbed his jacket from the stool next to him. "I'm not sure, I'll go ask him."

"You're kidding right," the bigger man looked back at his friend. "Oh that's right you're Levi. You don't kid."

Like it has already been said, Levi de Morio was a simple man. He didn't need much to be happy except the happiness of the people he cared for. When he first saw Cal he knew they had gone through similar things. He had seen so much of Lady Lucinda in Cal that it was rather un-nerving but it made him interested in the half human young man and when he saw the way said young man looked at Lady Lucinda and the way she followed him out of the club he got a little hope in his heart they might just be what each other was looking for. If that was so then he thought that meeting Cal properly would give him a better idea of the future they may or may not have. Lucinda carried around a whole in her heart due to what her nest had stolen from her when she was fourteen and he only hoped that there was someone out there who could fill it. She had been trying to fill it with the love she felt for her people and the feeling she got from helping people in the same situation she use to be caught in but it only worked temporarily.

As Levi walked out of the club he couldn't help but wonder if Cal was sporting the same hole within his heart. Levi went and asked Red where the young man lived. Red was one of the people who always helped find out about people the nest hired for jobs that were not worth doing themselves. Red was one of those people who could find out anything and everything about anyone. She was perhaps even better at it than Lucinda.

Levi found out the address of Cal Leandros and his brother and walked there. When he focussed his Cult sense of smell he could tell where he had to go and once he was within half a mile of the building he knew exactly what apartment belonged to the brothers. He made his way up the stairs and straight to the designated floor, Cal's unique scent getting closer with every step. As far as Levi could tell, Cal was alone, his brother's scent still lingered heavily which meant he had not long left which meant the chances were he could be gone for another while and even if he got back soon Levi could be out of there without being seen as he had the same speed of any Cult and also the ability to jump great distances and cling to surfaces for a short amount of time so he could escape through the window. He had seen Niko's skills when he was destroying the revenants and Levi was not eager to fight him, well in all honestly Levi was never eager to fight anyone but even if his centuries of skill and learning helped him prevail against Niko's impossible talent then it would be a horrible battle. One he was anxious to avoid at all costs. He knocked on the door and Cal answered, Levi could tell immediately that Cal was on guard and probably had a weapon on him somewhere and why wouldn't he be. Who would come to his apartment at this time of day that didn't bring trouble with them?

"Hi," Levi said in a kind almost timid voice. "I don't suppose you remember me?"

"I do, you're that Cult from the bar last night. What are you doing here?"

"I came here to talk to you."

"Why?"

"It's about Lady Lucinda."

"I have nothing to say to you about her," Cal tried to close the door but Levi's big hands grabbed it and kept it ajar. Cal couldn't move it at all against Levi's grip; it was like trying to move a statue that was bolted to the ground.

"Then don't say anything, let me talk. May I come in?"

Cal would have normally said no but he had never met anyone in his life who was eradiating less ill intent than Levi so he thought that the best way to get him to leave was to listen to what he had to say.

"There isn't much I can say to you that Lady Lucinda won't want to tell you herself but all I can do is advising you to give her a chance. I am a person whose life she has turned around so I am in the perfect position to tell you that she is worth listening to. Before meeting her I spent most of my life alone. I was forced to find a means for my family to die to end their pain and on account of that, the early centuries of my life were spent without the touch of my own kind. Then I met Lady Lucinda and she gave me a place in the world again. I was made a member of her nest," Levi pulled the crest he wore around his neck out of his shirt and showed it to Cal. The symbol had been described in the nest as a cross between a star and a firework but Cal thought it looked more like a jagged throwing star. "Lady Lucinda feels something for you, more than I've ever seen her feel for anyone and from the looks you were giving her last night I might be so bold as to think that you might feel the same." Cal opened his mouth to protest but he found he could give any evidence to back up his protest. "I was lucky because I was able to regain the touch of my own kind because of Lady Lucinda but she was not so fortunate. She is half human so despite the fact that we are her people we are not her kind. I believe that in your short life you have been through enough to know how she feels. How it feel to be caught between two completely different worlds. You are Lady Lucinda's kind and I would have you go to her and show her that she too can receive the touch of her own kind."

"Why are you telling me all this," said Cal, his mouth hanging open.

"Because it is all true. Please stop denying it. You are only hurting yourself."

And with that Levi left, leaving Cal in state similar to that of a frozen creature. He managed to pull himself together by the time Niko returned but he continued looking at the door as if he wanted to exit this apartment and go and see if Levi was right and Lucinda was his own kind and if he did indeed felt something for him. He knew that there was something between them, something strange and scary. That was all he was willing to admit to himself but it was more than enough to lose sleep over.

No, he would stay where he was, he would stay in the familiar dark place he been for his entire life. He belonged here. Still if that was true then why didn't it feel like it? Why didn't it feel like he belonged with Niko? He always knew that Niko would have had a better life without him and he had tried on many occasions to reason with his brother and tell him he should live his own life. Niko had always replied that Cal _was_ his life and nothing would ever change that. That made Cal feel guilty and even more like he didn't belong. God this woman drove him crazy; he hated the fact that with one look she had undone his carefully constructed world. She had made him want more than what was available to him, had made him want to feel things he had never considered feeling before and denying such feeling and longings were getting harder by the day. He didn't know how long he would be able to carrying on living with this woman's unwavering presence hanging over him.

He would have to put an end this as soon as possible. He couldn't think of any other way to do that than to confront her. Not like he did in the alleyway when they first officially met, he would have to fight her. He would have to put an end to her perusal of him once and for all. He didn't want that to mean killing her but if it came to that he hoped he could do it. At least he thought that was what he hoped. He knew that if a Cult accepted a fight and died as a result then the nest could bear no ill will, in theory that was true but it only meant that if he fought Lucinda of her own will and won then her nest could not in good conscience, seek revenge. Cal was not a fool, he seriously doubted that he could beat Lucinda but he couldn't see any other way. It was her or him.


	7. Chapter 7

_Nik, I know it will probably be morning before you read this. If I am back before you wake up I'll destroy this note but if you're reading it then I guess I'm not back. _

_I know I have been acting strangely lately but now I know what the problem is and I think I know how to fix it. Think is the big word here though. If I get back I'll tell you everything I can._

_Please don't come after me, I need to do this on my own or it will never get done. There has been a force in my life lately that has made feel unlike myself but I am going to get rid of that force. I don't know exactly how but I will do it. The best thing you can do for me just now is understand._

_Thanks Nik._

Cal wasn't exactly happy with this note and he sincerely hoped that he would be back in time to destroy it before Niko woke up. It was just past ten o clock at night and Cal was planning to make his way to 'Club Millennia' to find Lucinda and challenge her in front of her nest so they could see her acceptance. When he wrote the line 'If I get back...' he almost scribbled it out but he couldn't bring himself to write 'when' because it would be promising Niko something he may not be able to deliver. He knew this Cult Leader was a hundred times more powerful than he was not to mention the fact that his powers where newly discovered and not well practiced while hers had been honed over centuries. Plus she was probably a better fighter than Niko as Goodfellow had warned him that he himself had been defeated by Cults on more than one occasion. They were born warriors, trained from birth to protect themselves and their families. They were kind of like Niko in that respect except with centuries more experience and that was probably one of the reasons why he felt strangely drawn to them. The truth was he didn't know if he would be back, it wasn't likely that Lucinda would kill him seeing as she was working so hard to get his attention but you never knew what would happen during a dual with a Cult.

The night was cold, he brought a jacket this time but it did little to shield him from the shiver that continually ran up and down his spine. It was usually cold in New York around this time of year but the shiver was more than just a physical chill his body was experiencing. More than once he nearly turned around as he remembered the feel of her blood on his skin and on his tongue. If he killed her he could never have that pleasant peaceful feeling that she brought with her every time she popped into his life. He shook his head; that peaceful feeling was like a drug. He had to get off it before it destroyed him.

'Club Millennia' came into his view. He stood outside for at least ten minutes debating the pros and cons of going in there. Eventually he just shut off his brain and walked into the club. He wasn't positive that Lucinda would be here and if she wasn't well then ... that was his decision made for him.

If only, Cal saw Lucinda sitting at the bar drinking a straight whiskey. She looked sad and the atmosphere in the club seemed more solemn than it did the last time because of it. He felt like there were many pairs of sharp eyes on him but he didn't pay it any mind, he kept his own on Lucinda. He strode towards her with purpose and placed his hand on the counter. She looked up at him and seemed tempted to smile but the look on his face made her unable to. For a while they just stood there staring at each other unaware that half of the club was staring at them in turn.

"Lucinda Macbeth I have my own reasons for doing this and I feel like the only way to solve the problem between us is to fight so will you accept my proposal for a dual keeping in mind that if you refuse I will fight you anyway."

Lucinda seemed to think for a moment. Her face almost dropped when she heard Cal's words but she schooled herself to remain stoic as she had to in the face of a challenge. Only a few people were close enough to here Cal's words but as soon as they heard this person challenging their leader they gasped and passed on the message in fact it was less than twenty seconds before the music was turned off and everybody was waiting for Lady Lucinda's answer. They held no ill will as they knew this young man must have a reason for challenging someone as powerful as Lady Lucinda. All eyes were on her but she didn't know, all she could see was the raging storm in Cal's mystical grey eyes. She could of course refuse, she didn't want to fight him but then he would just do it anyway and in that case her nest would want him punished for offenses against her. She couldn't let that happen so she felt she had no choice but to accept.

She stood up and looked Cal square in the face with a stoic expression but extremely expressive eyes. "Cal Leandros I accept your challenge. I believe we have enough witness' to begin now. There is a place in central park I know of not far from here that where I train. I believe that will be a sufficient ground to do this on. Shall we go?" Cal nodded not trusting his tongue to say anything. Lucinda pointed to while saying their names respectively, "Levi, Red, Romulus you will all be witness' seeing as my brother is otherwise engaged. Levi I wish for you to have the job of reporting to him of this event should I be unable."

"Yes My Lady."

"Everyone else is to stay here and not speak a word of this until given permission." She then grabbed Cal's arm and said, "Let's go."

Cal felt like the air was being pressing into his skin and he couldn't breathe, he couldn't even move or pull his arm away from Lucinda as the pressure of the air was stopping him. It was about forty seconds before they arrived at the sight this battle would take place. When Lucinda finally stopped Cal gasped, trying to catch as much air as he could. Even when Lucinda stopped she didn't let go of his arm. Instead she put her free hand on his other arm and held him until he got his breath back. As soon as he did he pushed her away as her skin was starting to feel warm against his. She was meant to be cold and that was how he wanted to think of her. So why was that so damn hard?

"How would you like to begin? I see you are not armed much." That was true, all he had was a large knife and a gun. "Red." Lucinda said in a commanding voice and Red stepped forward to present weapons she had somehow picked up. The box contained two swords, two staffs that could be folded for portability and two oddly enough, whips. "Please choose your weapon if you want one," said Lucinda picking up one of the whips. Red set the box on the ground indicating that it was ok to retrieve a weapon any time either opponent wanted to.

The weapons were impressive and certainly dangerous but Cal didn't know how to use any of them expect the swords and he always preferred hands on fighting so when he sparred with Niko he usually opted to do it without swords. When Cal didn't move to pick up a weapon Lucinda nodded and the three witness' stepped back. Cal didn't see them moved, one minute they were on one place and one minute they were almost hidden by trees. The place Lucinda had chosen was very appropriate. It was a clearing surrounded by trees, she could practice here whenever she wanted with little fear of discovery especially at night. The beautiful creature across from Cal stood in a loose defensive stance which told him that the first move was his. Cal hesitated, this didn't feel entirely right for some reason and yet it seemed like the only way to end his problems and he was right this would end his problems just not in the way he thought it would.

The young man took out his gun and attempted to fire at Lucinda, she was gone from sight before he even aimed the gun let alone pulled the trigger. He didn't know where she was now, he looked around but she was hidden from sight. He called upon his sense of smell and found her rather quickly. He didn't normally analyze scent that fast but his adrenaline was going crazy at the moment and it gave him more power than he had ever felt before. In that moment he felt more empowered than he had ever felt in his whole life, he didn't even feel this strong when he was in his Auphe mindset.

That mindset had almost killed him, or killed his human side at least. He had only experienced that mind set a few times in his life. It was horrible, he felt like he would kill everything in sight just to see them die and he would enjoy it more than he had enjoyed anything in his life. The worse thing about becoming more like an Auphe was the fact that while it was horrible it was only horrible when he returned to his normally mindset. While he was following his demon instincts it felt good, really good and more right than anything else he had done in his life. That was truly the most horrible part, Cal wasn't afraid of killing people so much as he was afraid of enjoying it. He had seen people and creatures die, some by his hand and he had not felt anything for them. That is what told Cal he was a monster no matter who much Niko denied it, only a monster would kill not for food or survival but for enjoyment. Still, when Lucinda came back into view after Cal shooting in the direction she hidden and looked him directly in the eye he knew he couldn't possibly enjoy killing her.

"Your sense of smell is impressive considering I don't think you have been given sufficient practice. I suppose it must be your predatory instincts. That is one of the things that make Cult such good fighters. Just rely on those instincts and this fight could go in your favour."

Cal didn't know what she as talking about, how on earth could he be powerful enough to defeat her when he could only get the odd hit on Niko and he was pretty sure that she could take him down, not without a long struggle of course but he was sure she could do it. Cal got a sudden urge to create a gate, one seemed to form in his hand of its own accord. When he realised it was there he closed it immediately. He wouldn't use that power, it was a testament to his Auphe nature and if he defeated her using it then he would be aiding his transformation into a true monster. He point blank refused to use it. It wasn't who he was he wouldn't let himself become an Auphe but when he looked at Lucinda and saw her, a half human living having made peace with her powers and her predatory nature and she didn't seem to have lost her human side either. She was not a human but neither was she a Cult. It was hard to tell what she was.

She stood in front of him and dropped into a defensive stance as if she wanted him to come at her. "Why are you denying what you truly are? You have great power and you don't use it. It doesn't matter where that power has come from. All that matters is how you choose to use it and this gift you have could be used in all sorts of wonderful ways."

Cal stayed silent for a while, he didn't know how long. She wanted him to use his gates; she was acting like it was ok. These gates where exactly what made him more Auphe. He couldn't possibly use that abomination of an ability that she called a gift. She said it didn't matter where it was from all that matter was how he chose to use it. That was completely untrue, no matter how he used it or what he used it for the result was always the same. It left him feeling like he wanted to kill just so he could see the blood in front of, smell it and enjoy his victim's pain and suffering. If he used this 'gift' then he was turning himself into an Auphe little by little. "You don't know anything," he said simply and then he charged at her.

She didn't move until he got close and even then all she did was raise the handle of her whip to block the oncoming thrust from Cal's heavy knife. "I know that you are afraid of becoming like your father," she said and Cal took a step back unconsciously but didn't stop the pressure he was weighing on the knife even if Lucinda's deceptively strong hands weren't moving under the weight. "So am I."

At those words cal took a large jump backwards and faced Lucinda with a confused and almost sad look on his face. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"My father was a monster. He did terrible, selfish things and nobody stopped him. I am just like you; I am terrified of becoming like him. All races have monsters among them; human, Cults, werewolves and every other race you can think of, they wall have monsters. I know all of the Auphe were monsters, they couldn't help it. It was just in their instincts. It was the way they were made but you don't have to be like them. You have different instincts, the Auphe couldn't love. You can. The Auphe would never fight for anything that didn't pertain to their enjoyment. You fight for the people you care about, you are alive for the very purpose of making sure no-one misses you. Your very existence is selfless." Cal couldn't find anything to say in response. He was frozen. "All you have to do is embrace your Auphe side, let your human side balance it out. Don't fight it and try and push it away lie you have been doing otherwise it is just going to fight for dominance and it will just get stronger. It is a part of you Cal; you can't get rid of it. All you can do it is accept it and make yourself into a whole person, not half human half Auphe but something entirely new and all your own. You don't have to fight who you are anymore. You can't choose a side of your personality, you can't be human but you can't be Auphe either. You can either accept who you are or be destroyed by it like I almost was."

Cal couldn't listen to this anymore. Something strange and terrifying overtook him and he felt power surrounding him in a way it never had before. Suddenly as if by instinct he was surrounded by light and he reappeared behind Lucinda. He knocked her over the back of the head. As quick as lightening she turned around to face him. The look on that beautiful countenance told Cal she knew it was coming but he was not in any position care at the moment. She disappeared but Cal already had her scent so he knew where she was. He took out his gun and fired at her. She missed it but only by a fraction.

Cal had never felt like this before. He had used his power like this before when he brother was in trouble but this time his head was clear. He didn't have that wicked voice in his ear telling him that he would enjoy maiming and killing everything in sight. He didn't feel like an Auphe but he didn't feel like a human either. This was a high he had never experienced before in his life and he was determined to savour it for as long as he possibly could and it looked like he would be able to do that since the seasoned warrior before him didn't look likely to go down any time soon. Cal didn't know how he all of a sudden knew how to use his ability like he had been doing it for years but he didn't care all he did was act on instinct and as he did that his other abilities seemed more powerful. When he was sparring with Niko he was trying to think of his brother's next move and most of the time he couldn't but now he wasn't thinking. He was just letting his body act before his mind and it seemed like he natural reactions were much better than his thought process.

"It's strange isn't it?" Cal heard Lucinda's voice come from behind him and he shifted quickly to face her. "To live for years as a human and then one day all these new abilities arrive and you don't consciously know what to do with them but your body somehow works on its own."

"That happened to me when I was fourteen. That is when Cults start to develop as vampires. My body could somehow do all these amazing things that didn't seem possible and there was no-one there to teach me. To help me cope with it but it doesn't have to be that way for you. I can be there to help you, all you have to do is let me."

Cal's anger flared up and again and this time the gate he made surrounded Lucinda. There was no escape as he didn't force her into it; he built it around her body. That was something he didn't know he could do, he thought that gates had to be stepped into. He knew he could build them around himself and now he knew he could build them around other people with seemingly no means of escape. Lucinda was swallowed up by the gate and she reappeared in front Cal who stabbed her shoulder in the same place he shot her the first time they officially met. The Cult didn't seem the slightest bit phased by the journey through the gate like the other few people he had done it to tended to be. She winced at the bite of the knife but use her speed to disengaged herself from Cal and hide in the trees once more. She knew now that her blood had been spilt her scent was easier for Cal to pinpoint so she would have to keep moving while she healed her wound.

Even over the sweet smell of her blood Cal could pick up the scent of Lucinda's unique saliva. He could smell mint chocolate chip on her breath and the cold night air made the smell even more refreshing. Cal shot at Lucinda again but he missed, she was too fast for a bullet so he tucked his gun against the small of his back somehow ignoring the heat from the metal.

When Lucinda returned to Cal's sight she was healed and ready to fight again. She noticed that while she was amongst the trees Cal had gone to the box of weapons and retrieved one of the swords. Her dry lips quirked up into a smile and she gave them a very obvious lick. The sight of her tongue made Cal shiver as images flashed through his head of her and him in the alley way. This time Lucinda didn't wait for Cal to strike, she made the first move and launched her impressive whip towards him. The whip acted like an extension of her body and wrapped itself around his ankles before he could move. He fell as if the ground had been whipped out from under him and before he knew it Lucinda was on top of him, the handle of her whip pressed into his throat. He knew he would run out of air pretty soon so he had to get her off but her knees sitting were firmly on his wrists and he was losing his grip on the sword. Cal was always rather flexible; it was really his only advantage over Niko when they fought. He prayed it would work on Lucinda too. The young man swung his leg into the air and managed to get a grip on Lucinda's throat with them. It wasn't enough to cut of circulation but he gathered as much force as he could and swung his legs back towards the ground which caused Lucinda to flip through the air and land face first on the ground. Cal wasted no time; he grabbed his sword and climbed onto Lucinda's back grabbing her hair and placing his sword to her throat.

Cal's advantage was short lived however because Lucinda used her speed to twist her neck so that she facing Cal and once she got hands free she pushed him off and ran few meters away. Cal barely saw her move but he felt her every action. He looked up and saw that the sword had cut into her throat, it was only a shallow cut but it was bleeding profusely. She seemed to have no trouble ignoring it as she launched her whip again, this time it catch Cal across the chest giving him a painful lash mark but for some reason he knew the strike could have gone a lot deeper if Lucinda wanted it to.

More feelings were coming to the surface now things he wasn't familiar with. He could understand his own feelings a lot clearer now for some reason. What was happening to him? It wasn't the same thing that had been happening to him since he first laid eyes on Lucinda. This was different, this was happening quickly, here in this fight. He could see things so much clearer than he ever had before. He felt like he could finally understand what he was and maybe one day he could make peace with it. That is what Lucinda had said she had done but how had she done it? Had she done it just like that? Was it really that simple? Could you just decide one day who you were and what you were? The answer was no you couldn't but one day was all it took to begin and Cal could tell this was the beginning of something new. Lucinda had told him before they began this fight that he didn't have to be half human, half monster. He could be a whole new being all his own. Damn was it really that easy? Did Lucinda just wake up one day and start having these feelings because that if what Cal felt had happened to him. He started to regret asking for this fight as it was showing him so much. So much about himself that he didn't want to know. This fight was turning him into something new.

Cal didn't get much of a chance to contemplate what he was becoming as another lash came towards him. Without thinking he managed to dodge it and somehow ended up in a tree. His instincts were unpredictable, he would have to be careful if he was going to rely on them or he could end up in the middle of the ocean. Luckily he wasn't very high into the tree so he managed to jump down without trouble. Unluckily Lucinda was standing in front of him the minute his feet hit the ground. She punched his jaw hard enough for him to lose vision for a few seconds but he followed his sense of smell and managed to block the second thrust before the sight returned. When his eyes began to work again the first thing he saw was Lucinda's smiling at him genuinely, it wasn't a cheeky smile or a condescending one. It was a smile that held an element of pride like she was happy Cal was discovering his true abilities. A smile that said this was only the beginning of what he could do.

Cal snarled and kicked her in the stomach, she could have easily dodged it but she took it and her smile didn't waver. He launched at her with the sword and she blocked it with her whip handle. The Cult bent her legs and launched herself backwards, she landed several meters away from Cal holding her whip in a stabbing motion as if it was knife and then without warning a knife popped out of the end of the handle. Cal was a little shocked at this, this meant she could meet his thrusts and fight him at close range if she wanted. This gave her an advantage as she could chose the range as it suited her. Since he was holding a sword he was at a disadvantage because her whip was a mid range weapon and she was more than capable of keeping him a good distance away from her. Unless she chose to fight him with the knife at the end of her whip he was in real trouble. Surprisingly that was exactly what she chose to do. She jumped towards him covering all the distance she had covered when she jumped away from him and held the whip handle in the air bringing it down in a stabbing motion. Cal blocked it with a great deal of difficulty and felt his power surrounding him once again and he teleported away from her. She didn't take long to recover from her opponent disappearing, she picked up his scent used her speed to follow him and continue thrusting at him. He blocked the first few of them but it was getting harder as she was getting faster and before long he wouldn't be able to see the sword thrusts so he had to come up with a different plan. It didn't take him long to think up one.

The knife at the end of Lucinda's whip came towards his face but it didn't connect, instead it travelled through a porthole Cal had created to block the thrust. Lucinda felt a stabbing pain in her left leg so she looked down and saw with no small amount of horror and surprise that she was looking at her own hand and her whip handle which was embedded in her leg. The porthole Cal had made was not only made to send her attack somewhere else, it was designed to turn her own attack against her. If it wasn't for the stabbing pain in her calf Lucinda might have smiled at the sheer genius of the idea. Cal used Lucinda's surprise against her, the minute he heard her hiss at the pain of her own knife he came out from behind the porthole and stabbed Lucinda viciously in the stomach but the experienced warrior was not so far gone that she couldn't block the attack. She used her free hand to grab the blade of Cal's sword before it went in too deep. It wounded the hand viciously but it was nothing she couldn't deal with.

Cal was reluctantly impressed by his opponent. She had a knife in her calf, a sword in her stomach and a semi-seriously wounded hand and she didn't let the pain show on her face but ... oh God what the hell was that?

Cal jumped backwards, withdrawing the sword from Lucinda's abdomen. The Cult may have not shown the pain on her face but he somehow knew what she was feeling. That had never happened before; he had never felt anyone's feelings before when he was fighting. In fact he had developed a slightly unhealthy indifference to the pain of his opponents but now something had awakened inside of him. Her pain didn't hurt him in the same way it did her but it was like an agonising stab to his heart. It hurt more than any wound he had ever sustained and suddenly he felt like he didn't want to land anymore hits on her. Now that he thought about it he had always been able to sense when people were around but only when they were afraid. Goodfellow had told him that the Auphe were masters at sensing fear but could they sense pain too? Cal didn't know and he didn't have time to think about it as Lucinda pulled her hand out of the porthole taking her whip with her. She winced but did nothing else to indicate that she was in pain but Cal felt another stab, a little lighter than the first.

Lucinda's eyes turned to make contact with Cal's and what he saw was what he had been dreading. The whites of her eyes were no longer white. They were a blood red colour, the colour Cult's eyes became when they were hunting or when their emotions were high. It was the look in a Cult's eyes you never wanted to see. In that moment Cal knew that there would be no more holding back, Lucinda was going to come at him with all she had. He could feel her anger, his lust, her pain; he could even feel the adrenaline coursing through her body. Maybe it wasn't just fear the Auphe could sense? What if it was a hold range of emotions? Hell he could barely control his own what was he going to do if he could suddenly feel other people's emotions as well?

Lucinda didn't let him mull over this for very long. She launched herself at him at the speed of sound. Cal was surprised to see that she was that fast even while she was injured. She slashed him twice in the face and once across the chest from the right hip to the left shoulder and then tripped him with the rope end of her whip which she was twirling around in the air with at left hand while she butchered him with her right. Cal came back to his senses shortly before he hit the ground. He used his ability to teleport himself behind Lucinda, he attempted to stab her in the neck but before he could make the move she was at his right hand side and she thrust the knife end of her whip at him while she used the rope end to lash him in the legs. Cal managed to block some of the knife thrusts but he could block them and the lashed to his leg so he decided if he couldn't move then he would move his opponent.

Lucinda blinked, one minute she was facing Cal and the next she was among the tree and she couldn't even see him. The travel through the gate left her a little disoriented but she ignored the discomfort and used her time away from Cal to use her saliva to heal her wounds. She didn't get a lot of time heal them properly because Cal appeared in front of her and grabbed her pushing her through another porthole. Cal had obviously realised that she was not going to come back out so he caught wind of her scent and followed her in. Once they were both back out in the open the fight commenced.

Blood was flying around the clearing. The Cult and Auphe blood mixing together on the clearing floor. The two fighters didn't even notice, all they could focus on was each other and their moves which were getting more powerful by the second. Every thrust seemed to tell Cal more about himself than he had learned in the last two decades of his life. He could feel new abilities coming to the surface, ones that had gotten a thousand times stronger than he had ever imagined them being and ones that he never dreamed he had. His own feelings and emotions took a temporary back seat because all he could think about was the fact that he was feeling Lucinda's emotions as well. As to how he knew they were her emotions he had no idea but it was all his mind could focus on. He could feel her anger, her desperation, her determination, her sadness, her pain and he could even feel something else that he couldn't put a name to. He might have been tempted to call it love but he put that ridiculous thought aside and tried his best to focus on fighting her for now.

He had been in tough spots before but then again Niko was always at his side to help him if he got into trouble, now Niko wasn't there and even if he was cal doubted he could do anything against Lucinda. Cal was only boding so well because he was following his instincts as a predictor and that in turn was bringing out all sorts of new powers and feelings. Everything that had happened to him since he had laid eyes on Lucinda was now boiling over the surface. All these abilities and emotions were being built up and now he was unleashing them on her because she was the only being in the world who could take it. She was the only being in the world who understood him, the only one who could deal with his wrath and his confusion and his pain. Only she could do that because only she had gone through it herself and probably at a much worse level because she had been around to suffer much longer than he had. Who knows what she must have gone through before she was granted the respect she so obviously deserved? She was a widely acclaimed warrior and the leader of a Cult which she played a huge part in making as powerful as it was. She said she was going to stick around until he listened to her and she didn't care how long it took. She didn't care how many times he shot her in fact Cal believed she didn't really care if he killed her. She just wasn't going to leave him alone until he heard her out. He didn't know if listening to her explanations of his powers while trying to beat the shit out of her qualified as 'hearing her out' but he was starting to admit that what she was trying to tell him held a lot of merit and why shouldn't he try and change with her help?

The reason was simply because he was afraid of change. In his world change equalled deterioration, things just seemed to go from bad to worse and the only way to stop yourself from getting hurt was to stay where you were. Maybe it was time to change that outlook.

Lucinda managed to get behind Cal and lash him across the back. Did he scream? He didn't know, maybe he did or maybe it was Lucinda. He didn't know and he didn't want to but when he managed to face Lucinda again he managed to slash her arm he was pretty sure he heard a scream and it wasn't Lucinda's because she didn't open her mouth. He felt that slash in his heart. It wasn't like a physical wound but it was still pretty painful. He decided that he would have to finish this now and quickly because he couldn't take anymore hit and he couldn't give out anymore hit if he was going to feel every one of them in his own chest. He used his gate to teleport backwards to the very edge of the clearing and Lucinda being the insightful warrior that she was knew what this meant. He wanted the finishing blow to be struck and to be honest so did she, she just wanted this to be over. She used her speed to get herself to the other side of the clearing. She leaned against a tree to catch her breath, she had lost a lot of blood and hadn't had time to heal herself properly.

Lucinda and Cal stared at each other from across the clearing, something passed between them and neither of them could put a name to it but it was a feeling they would hang onto until their deaths and perhaps even longer. They had a silent understanding as they dropped into their fight stances and held their weapons. In a flash they were both several meters in the air a couple of feet above the tops of the trees. Cal had gotten there with his travelling ability and Lucinda had got there using her superior strength and speed. The power in her legs allowed her to jump massive distances and inject a hell of a lot of power in her blows.

They clashed. Two halves of the same coin joined together in that blow. Then they dealt each other wounds. Lucinda thrust the knife end of her whip into Cal's side and Cal injected his sword into the wound Lucinda still had from the last time he stabbed her there only this time it went all the way through. They both fell towards the ground. Cal managed to gather his wits just enough to create a porthole underneath him that opened up near the ground so his fall wound be shorter. Lucinda had the foresight to land on her feet so that the top half of her body which was the one which was most injured would have a softer fall.

They lay there on the grass for a few minutes just breathing hard. Cal was on his back and Lucinda was on her front. Cal couldn't move, he had utterly exhausted himself using both his physical body and his new powers not the mention the fact that he had sustained more than a few nasty wounds. He looked towards Lucinda and saw her getting up on her knees. One of her legs was twisted at an odd angel, it was obviously broken and she was clearly in the same state Cal was but she was forcing herself to go on.

After Lucinda forced herself onto her knees she crawled at a snail's pace towards Cal. The young man in question saw her approaching but found he couldn't move, he was finished, he couldn't fight anymore. 'How is it possible?' he thought. 'How can she be so fucking strong?'

Lucinda lifted her head to look at Cal and he was shocked to see that her eyes were brimming with tears, ready to fall at any second. "It's almost unbearable isn't it?" she said in a voice that portrayed so much pain and not just that which came from her broken bones and damaged organs but the pain that resided in her heart. "The feeling you get being a Hybrid? I know that feeling. I've felt what you're feeling now, I've been in that horrible, lonely place where you feel like there are two worlds and you just don't belong in either of them. But now I've made peace with it, I've accepted who I am and I feel whole now. I understand your pain so much it breaks my heart. That's why I won't ever give up. I will show you, there is a better way."

"But why?" asked Cal, tears escaping from his own eyes. "Why would you do this for me?"

Lucinda paused for a moment to look him straight in the eyes, "Because we're the same."

A lone tear escaped from Cal's eye and landed on the grass, it was the first time he had cried since he was a child. The truth was even if she didn't have this new emotion reading gift that Cal had discovered she did understand his pain more than anyone else in the world ever could and that more than anything made Cal weep because his pain was something he wouldn't wish on anyone.

While crawling towards Cal Lucinda left a heavy trail of blood. The vision was going from her eyes and the strength was leaving her arms. Cal watched with a pang in his heart as she collapsed towards the ground. He saw the other Cults come running out of the tree; he had forgotten they were even there. He didn't know how much time had passed but it felt like it was just him and Lucinda in the world. Nothing existed outside that because what she said was the truth. There were two worlds out there; human and supernatural and he and Lucinda didn't fit into either one of them so the world that had been created between them was the only place Cal had ever truly thought had felt like home. More tears spilled from his eyes and mixed with the blood on his face, some of it his own and some of it Lucinda's.

"Cal," a frantic voice called out. It was Niko, he had followed him. Figures, he had never really expect Niko to do as he asked did he? Niko must have woken up and his older brother senses started tingling and he found the note. It was still dark outside but it was probably the early hours of the morning. "Cal," said Niko again as he knelt down beside his brother frantically trying to cover up his wounds.

"Hey kid," he heard another voice. It was Robin's then he turned to Niko and said. "There are no serious wounds but they could become serious if we don't treat them quickly."

Niko turned to the cluster of Cult's around Lucinda's prone form and they stood up ready to defend her but Cal summoned as much strength as he could and grabbed onto Niko's trouser leg. He said in a voice that was barely louder than a whisper, "That's enough Niko." Niko turned to his brother as if to said 'to hell it is' but another tear fell from Cal's eyes. The storm that was in the before was now calm and beautiful. "Please," he said, "It's over."

Niko turned to the three Cults and saw them with their weapons drawn. Niko was sensible enough to know that he probably couldn't take more than one of them if he was lucky and Robin would definitely struggle with two plus the look in Cal's eyes made him unable to draw his sword. He turned to Goodfellow and the Puck nodded slightly. "Ok kid," he said gently, almost soothingly and picked Cal up. Niko stooped down and helped. After taking one last look at the Cults who were now tending to their leader they left. Cal's eyes didn't leave Lucinda's form until they were too out of sight to see it and in that moment he knew that he didn't want this to be the last time he saw he. He wanted to learn more, he wanted to be like her. Most of all he wanted to be with her.


End file.
